Elon Musk says he will pay over $11 billion in taxes this year, more than any American...

[p51d007]

Wish all of them would take a page out of the "robber barons" (so to speak) such as Rockefeller,
Carnegie etc.
Carnegie said once, or was quoted to say you should spend 1/3 of your life getting educated,
1/3 creating as much wealth as you can, and 1/3 giving it all away.
Yeah, he and people like JP Morgan, Rockefeller, DuPont were kind of a-holes, but, most did give
quite a bit of it away, to some extent. Still a HUGE amount of Carnegie libraries around.

 

[captaincranky]

Still a HUGE amount of Carnegie libraries around.

And don't forget, the way to get to Carnegie Hall...., practice.

I think that's distilled from an old vaudeville joke.

 

[wiyosaya]

He pioneered electric vehicle technology.

Uh. Nope. EVs were around Long before Musky was even a wink in his father's eye https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_electric_vehicle

Enabled cheap access to space and installed affordable global satellite internet.

Affordable to whom? Those who can afford it? Musky wanted to do that, but he's fallen short of his goals, IMO. The people who cannot afford the outlay for the base station are still sh!t out of luck.

Now he’s voluntarily paying more in tax than anyone else.

Musky is an expert at self-propoganda. Most people cannot see this.

But yet he is still hated.

He's done nothing that is worthy of liking.

The fact is at this point there is nothing good he can do to win people over.

He flushed himself down the drain many years ago, and has yet to figure out how to resurfact without all his crap.

The people who hate him now will only ever be happy if they see him fail and that says more about them than it does about Musk.

Just because you are unable to call a quack a quack, does not mean that others are unable to see through Musky's BS.

His achievements stand up on their own, they don’t need to be validated by the hate brigade.

Musky has no achievements other than those he wants you to believe are his. IMO, his biggest achievement is mass bullsh!tter.

 

[wiyosaya]

Pocahontas going after musk for not paying taxes is peak irony.

More like Musky just using the "opportunity" to congratulate himself --again.

 

[captaincranky]

Like you're going to miss that money. What else do you need? I get by on $1200 a month, so I'm just not feeling your pain, Elon. Rent is $900 a month... do the math. Some of us are scraping by and he's getting uppity about some millions coming out of his billions. I'm done.

Mr. Musk is doing what's called "a humble brag".
Out of one side of his a** he's saying, "poor me, I have to pay all this money in taxes", Out of the other side he's saying, "why I pay more in taxes, than you'll never see in your lifetime.

But like the country song goes,and especially with Musk's persona, "it's hard to be humble".

 

[captaincranky]

More like Musky just using the "opportunity" to congratulate himself --again.

Yeah really. While he's running his yap he's probably thinking, "I'm going to have to make my minions design a TV camera lens with a flat objective so that it's more like looking in the mirror"

 

[captaincranky]

More like Musky is just creating the "opportunity" to congratulate himself --again.

Fixed..! Now where the hell did that TV camera go?

 

[Lounds]

Just another rich boy narcissist gifted wealth by his daddy. There's a reason his wives keep leaving him.

 

[captaincranky]

Just another rich boy narcissist gifted wealth by his daddy. There's a reason his wives keep leaving him.

Maybe Trump will loan him Ivanka, if he's willing to make a huge contribution to his legal fund.. Hm, is Paris Hilton still on the market?

 

[BuckarooBonzaii]

These rich people like Elon, Bezos, and politicians have certain exclusions / loopholes in the tax laws since it's the rich politicians and friends that write and pass the laws. It's buried so deep in the pages that it seems only wealthy Tax Lawyers can find and interpret it.

Everything is Political no matter what. You can like or dislike it and comment, it's your right, but it's there. My father was a volunteer for many Community projects for revitalization of dilapidated areas. He told me to get things done, expedited and keep costs down, you have to play the game.

As for Elon is $11 billion gross or net?

 

[captaincranky]

These rich people like Elon, Bezos, and politicians have certain exclusions / loopholes in the tax laws since it's the rich politicians and friends that write and pass the laws. It's buried so deep in the pages that it seems only wealthy Tax Lawyers can find and interpret it.

Ar far as Musk in particular goes, he's probably only paying part of what he's grafted from EV tax credits and NASA contracts.

 

[Burty117]

I don’t care how much tax he pays. Why do you?

I actually like Musk, however, I do find it interesting to see how much the super rich get taxed.
Since you're living in the UK on and off you may have noticed the government complain all the time about not having enough money and are "making cuts everywhere" then eventually something rises, VAT, income tax or most recently, the national Insurance.

It's always painful to hear some billionaire or some multi-national corporation have paid little to no tax when your working middle class folk are paying 40% of their income just to the tax man.

 

[Arbie]

He... should have 100% of his "net worth" taken away and given to 100% of their workers.

The Bolsheviks said exactly the same thing. That didn't go well, fyi.

 

[FF222]

The guy is a pathological liar and a sociopath. I wouldn't even believe him then, when he'd tell in the morning that the Sun has just risen.

If he says he'll pay $11 billion in taxes, you can rest assured that he will actually only "pay" a fraction of that, at least in that sense in which we also pay taxes. Like he'll make large payments to foundations and companies, which he can then deduce from his tax, but in reality will get something back for the money (or he actually own those, of through a lots of shell companies, and such).

 

[DaveBG]

The guy is a pathological liar and a sociopath. I wouldn't even believe him then, when he'd tell in the morning that the Sun has just risen.

If he says he'll pay $11 billion in taxes, you can rest assured that he will actually only "pay" a fraction of that, at least in that sense in which we also pay taxes. Like he'll make large payments to foundations and companies, which he can then deduce from his tax, but in reality will get something back for the money (or he actually own those, of through a lots of shell companies, and such).

You can easily calculate that based on the number of shares he sold in recent days alone... so yeah.

 

[Goamist]

Why is he so proud of the fact that he is paying taxes? Is he giving away money? If he is paying taxes, that means that he HAS to. I don't hear or read about anyone around me bragging about paying their taxes. They just do it, because they agreed to live as part of the society, such as it is.

Yes, being humble nowadays is not something the public figures of today will ever embrace.

 

[Peter Kazmir]

Exactly what percentage of his claimed fortune is that?

Apparently about 3%. And this is just tax on his stock shares, not on any "regular" income. If he DIDN'T pay this, he'd have to pay MORE on the shares later, so this is SAVING him money.

 

[Burty117]

Why is he so proud of the fact that he is paying taxes? Is he giving away money? If he is paying taxes, that means that he HAS to. I don't hear or read about anyone around me bragging about paying their taxes. They just do it, because they agreed to live as part of the society, such as it is.

Yes, being humble nowadays is not something the public figures of today will ever embrace.

Most of the ultra rich barely pay their fair share of taxes. He's bragging because unlike a lot of other billionaires he's actually paying. The vast majority have the money to mostly avoid tax.

 

[captaincranky]

Most of the ultra rich barely pay their fair share of taxes. He's bragging because unlike a lot of other billionaires he's actually paying. The vast majority have the money to mostly avoid tax.

Please refer to my post @ #30

 

[captaincranky]

Why is he so proud of the fact that he is paying taxes? Is he giving away money? If he is paying taxes, that means that he HAS to. I don't hear or read about anyone around me bragging about paying their taxes. They just do it, because they agreed to live as part of the society, such as it is.

If you expect to understand him, you have to be able to, "walk a mile in another psychopath's shoes"{.

 

[Wizriz]

Well you would think the highest paid american pays the highest amount of tax sounds like he has some back taxes to pay $11B this year yet not much if any on past years

He is not the highest paid American. When the value of an asset you own goes up you are not "paid". Just like you are not paid if the value of your house goes up. Also, just as the value of an asset can go up it can also go down - so if you tax increases on the market value of assets, you would also need to issue tax rebates if asset values subsequently fall. That is why tax is only applied when the gain is realized.

 

[Wizriz]

If he says he'll pay $11 billion in taxes, you can rest assured that he will actually only "pay" a fraction of that, at least in that sense in which we also pay taxes. Like he'll make large payments to foundations and companies, which he can then deduce from his tax, but in reality will get something back for the money (or he actually own those, of through a lots of shell companies, and such).

If he makes donations to charities to reduce his tax bill it doesn't save him money. It just means some money goes to charities instead of going to the taxman, and he would actually give more to charity than the tax he would save. As for your allegation that the charities and foundations are rigged in his favour through shell companies, it is very easy to hurl accusations at someone you have decided you don't like... but where is the evidence to suggest this? For someone with his public profile it would be very difficult to hide.

 

[Wizriz]

I love people b*tching about how much someone pays in taxes. Like anyone here is asking to pay more taxes than they are paying right now. Give 90% of your income, then start asking other people to. Good way to get more high-income people to stay in the country is to tax the living hell out of them.
Reminds me of that 'We are the World' video. 40 super rich people giving 1 hour and 3 lines of their time to make YOU give more money. Classic.

Exactly. If these wealth tax advocates were playing fair, they would also be offering to pay tax on their total wealth (including the value of their house). But no, instead they compare their own tax % based on their income, with the % based on Elon's wealth. That's not comparing apples with apples.

 

[Wizriz]

It's always painful to hear some billionaire or some multi-national corporation have paid little to no tax when your working middle class folk are paying 40% of their income just to the tax man.

It sure is painful, but a lot of it is down to the misrepresentation of facts by the press and politicians who love a good headline.
First, not all billionaires are equal. Some inherited wealth, or acquired it through speculation, and many of these may have stashed this away in tax havens - I'm all for governments finding ways to tax the hell out of these.
But then you have the self-made billionaires who built their wealth through their innovation, drive and ability to execute. Their wealth is often tied up in the companies they built... like Tesla, and Amazon, and Facebook. And that wealth is constantly at risk... it is entirely possible that they would lose it all in a few months due to some other new innovation coming to the market... it has happened before and it will happen again.
To avoid selling too much of the company they built (so that they can retain control) they take loans using shares as collateral - but what nobody mentions is that if the share value goes down and the bank calls in the loans they will go bankrupt. Essentially they never own anything except their shares and their loans, and everything they have is constantly at risk.

 

[GamerNerves]

I don't have strong opinions about Musk, but given that in USA so many millionaires and billionaires avoid taxes, I would think the regular folk would be happy to get such a jackpot, though on what and how effectively the money will be used is the next thing on the table, like in any country. "Humble brag" this outcome might be, but it's good for the society nevertheless. Haters gonna hate.