Electric car manufacturer Tesla has lost 10% of its share value overnight after a tweet from Tesla founder Elon Musk. In the tweet, Musk asked his followers whether he should sell 10% of his Tesla shares to pay for a proposed new tax by the Biden administration.
In the poll, 3.5 million twitter users voted with 58% saying that Musk should sell 10% of his shares, which would be valued at $21 billion. The move led to investors downgrading their view on the value of the stock.
Much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance, so I propose selling 10% of my Tesla stock.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 6, 2021
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The new billionaire tax being proposed by Biden is said to be created in order to provide social services, healthcare, and fight the climate emergency. Musk has himself previously moved to Texas, which has no personal state income tax apparently, in order to lessen the impact on his personal finances.
Since 2020, and throughout the pandemic, Musk's wealth has greatly increased while many Americans have struggled in the hardest of circumstances. Therefore, it should not be surprising that most people believe that Musk should pay more tax. According to recent reporting by ProPublica, Musk paid no federal income taxes in 2018, and his "true tax rate" between 2014 and 2018 was 3.27 percent.
U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, said of the poll:
"Whether or not the world's wealthiest man pays any taxes at all shouldn't depend on the results of a Twitter poll. It's time for the Billionaires Income Tax."
In a bizarre retort to the Congressman, Musk said:
"Why does ur pp look like u just came?"
Musk is famed for his use of Twitter, with many of his online remarks deemed by some to be offensive and inappropriate, including tweets that indicated he supported a coup against the democratic government of Bolivia.
He has also got in trouble on Twitter for allegedly calling a man taking part in the rescue of children trapped in a Thai cave a 'pedophile'. He was later cleared in court of slander.
Musk also caused the share price of Tesla to fall in May 2020 when he tweeted that he believed the share price was too high, remarks which he also mirrored while hosting Saturday Night Live. Despite the fall, Tesla's shares soon recovered.
In 2018, it was revealed that Musk's father had been a part-owner of an Emerald mine in Zimbabwe and would have profited from the racist apartheid regime. It is unknown whether this money was then used to push his son into the wealth he enjoys today.
[Based on reporting by: Bloomberg]
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