The billionaire had parted ways with Tesla shares in order to pay off tax debts according to his own statements.
(Photo: Reuters)
San Francisco It was a curious poll that Tesla founder Elon Musk sent to his Twitter followers a few weeks ago. The 50-year-old wanted to know from the users whether he should sell ten percent of his shares – which is why almost 58 percent of those who took part voted in favor.
On Wednesday, Musk said in an interview with the conservative US satire website “The Babylon Bee” that he had now complied with the request. “I sold enough shares to get to ten percent, including stock options,” said the Tesla founder.
When asked, he added that he would have parted with the shares anyway, as some stock options would have expired in the coming year.
In addition, he also sold existing shares in order to increase the share to the promised ten percent.
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The news was received positively on the stock exchange. After the stock crashed more than 16 percent from $ 1,229.91 in a few days as a result of the survey in early November, the paper initially gained more than eleven percent after the interview was published and was shortly before the close of trading on Wall Street still almost seven percent up.
With a price of just under $ 1005 per share, Tesla is still significantly lower than before the survey. This is also due to the fact that the auto industry as a whole is currently suffering from economic problems, including material shortages and general uncertainties as a result of the pandemic.
Criticism from US politicians
The reason for the sale was originally the allegation by some US politicians that Musk was paying too little taxes. The tech billionaire argued that his wealth was mostly made up of stocks – the appreciation of which is typically non-taxable unless shares are sold but held continuously.
Musk had already announced on Twitter on Sunday that he would pay more than eleven billion US dollars in taxes this year. “I have no offshore accounts and no tax havens,” said Musk. He is able to prepare his own tax return within a few hours. “Everything is very transparent.”
According to data from Bloomberg, Musk is the richest person in the world with a net worth of $ 244.9 billion. Part of this is attributable to the space company SpaceX, which Musk founded in 2002 before Tesla, and the start-up Neuralink, which is working on connecting the human brain with computers.
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