$15 billion tax urges Elon Musk to sell 10% of Tesla stock | Money

Musk allowed Twitter to decide whether to sell its shares:

According to stock experts, Elon Musk will sell millions of shares in the last quarter of this year. In their opinion, holding a referendum on Twitter was not necessary.

Musk does not receive a salary or bonuses from his own company, but is rewarded with shares. In 2012, he acquired 22.8 million shares, which were then valued at $6.24 per share. Currently, the cost of Tesla’s participation is about $1,222 and the total value of the ten-year-old shares is about $28 billion.

Musk will lose his right to Tesla shares in August of next year. If he wanted to turn those shares into money, he could count on a huge tax levy. That full tax fee would amount to $15 billion. Therefore, Musk is advised to sell the shares now and not wait until August.

Musk himself has yet to confirm that it will be $15 billion, but he responded angrily on Twitter. “Note: I do not accept cash or bonus payments from anywhere. I only have shares. If I personally have to pay taxes, I can only do so if I sell shares.”

In September, Musk already hinted that he would sell shares. “My rights to Tesla stock expire next year, so if I don’t want it to expire, I’ll have to sell it.” So now it seems that selling the shares will save him a significant amount of money. So the Twitter poll wasn’t necessary.