By
Svetlana Soroka
April 18th, 2024
Based on TSLA’s previous closing of $1,222.09, the worth of the CEO’s 10% shares is nearly $21 billion.
Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) CEO Elon Musk asked his Twitter followers if he should sell 10% of his TSLA shares. The CEO asked his 62.5 million Twitter followers in a poll, leaving them to vote either “Yes” or No.” Musk also promised to go by the poll results- whether to sell a chunk of his Tesla shares or continue holding on to it. Previously, Musk had explained that he is possibly facing a huge tax bill this year. In an additional tweet to the poll, the CEO noted that his salary and bonuses do not come in cash and that he only has TSLA. Hence, the only way to pay his personal taxes is to sell some of his TSLA holdings.
A proposal by Democrats targeting “exceptionally rich” taxpayers caused a stir this year. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yallen asked that the government should tax unrealized gains. The move will impose long-term capital gains on tradable assets, whether or not the holders sell them. The proposal will affect hundreds of billionaires across the US, including Musk, whose portfolio includes BTC, ETH, and DOGE. In the poll, Musk wrote:
“Much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance, so I propose selling 10% of my Tesla stock.”
Musk to Sell 10% of Tesla Shares
Over 3.5 million voters participated in the poll, with 57.9 saying “Yes” and 42.1% saying “No.” As of June 30th, Musk had about 170.5 million Tesla shares. Based on TSLA’s previous closing of $1,222.09, the worth of the CEO’s 10% shares is nearly $21 billion.
During the Code Conference in September, Mush said he may be paying more than half of the gains he would make from exercising options. He said:
“I have a bunch of options that are expiring early next year, so…a huge block of options will sell in Q4 – because I have to or they’ll expire.”
Since last month, the CEO’s brother Kimbal Musk and some other board members have already sold large numbers of their Tesla shares. More current and former board members also sold some of their TSLA worth hundreds of millions of dollars. These executives sold their stock on October 28th as TSLA surged.
TSLA rallied after the company announced record Q3 results, and rental car company Hertz placed an order for 100,000 Tesla vehicles. Since Hertz announced the 100,000 order of EVs, TSLA has grown about 34%, increasing Musk’s net worth. At press time, the Tesla CEO is the richest person in the world at a net worth of $338 billion, about $136 billion more than the second-richest Jeff Bezos.
TSLA stock is currently down 0.44% to $1,216.70 at extended trading hours. Tesla stock has been impressively green for the past twelve months, gaining more than 184% in a year. In addition, the company has been up 73.18% since January and has added nearly 75% in the last three months. TSLA has also increased 55.58% over the past month and 9.70% in the last five days.