Technology

Tesla chief Elon Musk says he’ll pay more than $11bn in taxes this year

Amount may constitute a record payment to the US Internal Revenue Service

Elon Musk earlier this month said he’ll pay more taxes than any American in history this year. Photograph: Frederic J. Brown/AFP

Mon Dec 20 2021 - 10:22

Elon Musk, the world’s richest person and chief executive of Tesla, said on Twitter that he’ll pay more than $11 billion (€9.77 billion) in taxes this year, an amount that could constitute a record payment to the US Internal Revenue Service.

The billionaire may face a tax bill of more than $10 billion (€8.87 billion) for 2021 if he exercises all his options due to expire next year, calculations last week by Bloomberg News showed.

The unusually high levy comes after Mr Musk exercised almost 15 million options and sold millions of shares to cover the taxes related to those transactions. That was following a Twitter poll last month when he asked followers whether he should sell 10 per cent of his stake in the electric carmaker, whose shares have rocketed more than 2,300 per cent over the past five years.

Unusual move

Since the unusual move to ask Twitter users about the plan, Tesla has declined nearly a quarter and the company’s market value has slid back below the $1 trillion (€890 billion) mark to $937 billion (€831 billion). The shares were 2.7 per cent lower in premarket trading Monday compared with Friday’s close in New York.

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A report by ProPublica in June said Mr Musk paid little income tax relative to his outsize wealth. But he’s pushed back against that characterisation, saying he doesn’t draw a salary from either SpaceX or Tesla, and pays an effective tax rate of 53 per cent on stock options he exercises. He added that he expects that tax rate to increase next year.

Mr Musk earlier this month said he’ll pay more taxes than any American in history this year. That was in response to another tweet from Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren, who used Mr Musk’s Time Magazine Person of the Year accolade to call him out on his taxes. – Bloomberg

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