Tesla chief executive Elon Musk on Saturday asked his 62.5 million followers on Twitter in a poll if he should sell 10 per cent of his Tesla stock.
"Much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance, so I propose selling 10% of my Tesla stock," Musk wrote in a tweet referring to a "billionaires' tax" proposed by Democrats in the US Senate.
Musk tweeted that he will abide by the results of the poll, whichever way it goes.
The poll received more than 2 million responses in seven hours after he posted it, with 56 per cent of respondents approving the proposal to sell the shares. The poll is scheduled to end around 8pm Irish time on Sunday.
Much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance, so I propose selling 10% of my Tesla stock.
Do you support this?— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 6, 2021
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Musk's shareholding in Tesla comes to about 170.5 million shares as of June 30th and selling 10 per cent of his stock would amount close to $21 billion based on Friday's closing, according to Reuters calculations.
In September, Musk said he is likely to pay taxes of over half the gains he would make from exercising options. He also dismissed the possibility that he would take loans with his Tesla shares as collateral. "Stocks don't always go up. They go down," he said at the code conference.
Some Tesla board members, including his brother Kimbal Musk, offloaded large numbers of shares after Tesla stock hit a record high late October.
Musk recently said on Twitter he'd sell $6 billion in Tesla stock and donate it to the World Food Program (WFP), provided the organisation disclosed more information about how it spent its money.
His tweet raised some eyebrows in the world of finance.
"We are witnessing the Twitter masses deciding the outcome of a $25B coin flip," Venture investor Chamath Palihapitiya wrote on Twitter.
"Looking forward to the day when the richest person in the world paying some tax does not depend on a Twitter poll," Berkeley economist Gabriel Zucman tweeted.
Musk got into trouble with a tweet about taking Tesla private in 2018.
