Musk Must Sell 10% Of Tesla Stock: Twitter Users

Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk should sell about 10% of his Tesla stock, according to 57.9% of people who voted on his Twitter poll asking users of the social media network whether he should offload the stake or not, Aishwarya Nair and Hyunjoo Jin reported for Reuters.

Photo Insert: The world's richest person stated that he was prepared for either outcome.

"I was prepared to accept either outcome," Musk said, after the voting ended.

The world's richest person tweeted on Saturday that he would offload 10% of his stock if users approved the proposal. Musk has previously said he would have to exercise a large number of stock options in the next three months, which would create a big tax bill. Selling some of his stock could free up funds to pay the taxes.

As of June 30, Musk's shareholding in Tesla came to about 170.5 million shares, and selling 10% would amount to about $21 billion based on Friday's closing, according to Reuters calculations.

The poll garnered more than 3.5 million votes. "Much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance, so I propose selling 10% of my Tesla stock," Musk said on Saturday.

Including stock options, Musk owns a 23% stake in Tesla, whose market value recently exceeded $1 trillion. He also owns other companies including SpaceX.

A week ago, Musk said he would sell $6 billion in Tesla stock and donate it to the United Nations' World Food Program (WFP), provided the organization reveal how it spent its money.

US Senate Democrats have unveiled a proposal to tax billionaires' stocks and other tradeable assets to help finance President Joe Biden's social spending agenda and fill a loophole that has allowed them to defer capital gains taxes indefinitely.

Musk has criticized the proposal saying, "Eventually, they run out of other people’s money and then they come for you." Tesla prospered due to Musk’s ingenuity but because of subsidies and perks from the federal government.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, who floated the tax proposal, told Musk curtly on Saturday: "Whether or not the world’s wealthiest man pays any taxes at all shouldn’t depend on the results of a Twitter poll."

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