Elon Musk should sell 10% stock in Tesla Inc: Twitter poll result

Elon Musk, CEO of
Tesla Inc, has been asked to sell nearly 10% of his stock in the company by 57.9%
Twitter users to whom he left the decision. On Saturday, Musk, who is the wealthiest
person in the world right now, said he would offload 10% of his Tesla stock if
users approve the proposal. After 57.9% of those polling said yes, Musk said, “I
was prepared to accept either outcome”.

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Elon Musk had
previously said that he would exercise a large number of his stock options in
the next three months, which would create a big tax bill, according to a
Reuters report. Selling a portion of his stock could free up funds to pay the
taxes, according to Musk.

The Twitter poll
that Musk set up to decide on his financial course of action garnered 3.5
million votes and the poll sided heavily with selling the stock.

At the end of July
this year, Musk held about 170.5 million shares in Tesla. If he were to abide
by the results of the poll and sell 10% stock, the amount would be close to $21
billion, as per calculations carried out by Reuters.

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While initiating
the poll, Musk said, “Much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of
tax avoidance, so I propose selling 10% of my Tesla stock.” Musk added that he
does not take cash salary or bonus from anywhere and just has stock.

The 50-year-old
billionaire’s social media moves and antics come and the United States Senate
Democrats unveil a proposal to impose tax on billionaire’s stocks and other
tradeable assets that can fund the social spending agenda and fill a loophole
that has allowed them to defer capital gains taxes indefinitely.

Musk has severely
criticised the proposal saying, “Eventually, they run out of other people’s
money and they come for you.”

Democrats,
however, are not amused at Musk’s antics. “Whether or not the world’s wealthiest
person pays any taxes at all shouldn’t depend on the results of a Twitter poll,”
said Ron Wyden, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee adding that it was
time for the “Billionaires Income Tax”.