Tesla CEO Elon Musk asked his 62.5 million Twitter followers on Saturday whether he should sell 10 per cent of his company’s shares.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The world’s richest person could face a “massive” tax burden this year and is forced to exercise a large number of stock options that mature next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance, so I propose selling 10% of my Tesla stock,” he said, attributing this to a “billionaires’ tax” proposed by Democrats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Musk criticized the proposal, which would affect 700 billionaires and impose taxes on long-term capital gains on tradable assets, regardless of whether they have been sold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Musk said he would abide by the survey’s findings no matter what.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The survey received 2 million responses within seven hours after the post went public, with 55% of respondents approving of the sale of shares, which ended at 3 p.m. ET on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Musk’s shares in Tesla stood at 170.5 million shares as of June 30 and a sale of 10% of his stock would be worth $21 billion after market close on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n