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

[midian182]

A hot potato: Something that Elon Musk’s detractors often like to point out is the relatively small amount of tax he’s paid in the past. In response, the Tesla boss has announced that he’ll pay over $11 billion in taxes this year, more than any American in history.

A ProPublica report back in June found that many billionaires such as Musk and Jeff Bezos pay little to no federal taxes using completely legal means. Musk reportedly avoided paying any federal income tax in 2018 while handing over just $68,000 in 2015 and $65,000 in 2017. And despite his wealth growing by $13.9 billion between 2014 and 2018, he reported $1.52 billion in income and paid $455 million in taxes.

For those wondering, I will pay over $11 billion in taxes this year

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 20, 2021

Musk’s low tax payments have drawn plenty of criticism and were highlighted by many when he became Time’s person of the year last week, but he’s responded with a tweet that reads, “For those wondering, I will pay over $11 billion in taxes this year.”

CNBC last week reported that Musk faces “the single largest tax bill ever,” having already paid $7 billion in state and federal taxes so far this year, with a further $5 billion payment arriving by January 1.

And if you opened your eyes for 2 seconds, you would realize I will pay more taxes than any American in history this year

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 14, 2021

Many billionaires are able to pay comparatively little tax because the government only taxes what it defines as income, so when the value of the stock they hold increases, their wealth isn't taxed. They can then borrow against the stock to pay living expenses. But Musk started selling off his shares last month following the results of a Twitter poll urging him to sell 10% of his Tesla stock.

CNBC did note, however, that Musk may have sold his shares regardless of the poll outcome as 22.8 million shares he was awarded as stock options in 2012 are set to expire in August next year. In order to exercise them, he has to pay income tax on the gain, but waiting until next year would likely mean paying higher tax rates under the Democrats’ Build Back Better bill.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/92697-elon-musk-pay-over-11-billion-taxes-year.html

 

[Thunder6230]

I think that's the whole year budget of my old homeland

 

[Vulcanproject]

Yeah attacking Musk who basically has to pay a massive capital gains tax rather than pretty much anyone else on the buy borrow die strategy is weird. You have only had decades to come up with a viable taxation alternative for the billionaires and none has ever gone anywhere.

There is quite a good movie (somewhat fictionalised) called 'All the money in the world' about JP Getty's antics while his grandson was being ransomed. It isn't fiction that he only wanted to pay the amount that was was tax deductible lol

 

[Theinsanegamer]

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

 

[Gabriel Pike]

Well this is about 11 billion more than he has ever paid while making money off of corporate welfare so, good..

 

[cuerdc]

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

 

[captaincranky]

F**k him. Exactly what percentage of his claimed fortune is that?
This is more of his bullsh!t self promotion. The A**hole never met a news camera he didn't fall in love with..

 

[Sausagemeat]

He pioneered electric vehicle technology. Enabled cheap access to space and installed affordable global satellite internet. Now he’s voluntarily paying more in tax than anyone else. But yet he is still hated. The fact is at this point there is nothing good he can do to win people over. 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. His achievements stand up on their own, they don’t need to be validated by the hate brigade.

 

[captaincranky]

He pioneered electric vehicle technology. Enabled cheap access to space and installed affordable global satellite internet. Now he’s voluntarily paying more in tax than anyone else.

OK listen, the plain, cold, hard, honest facts are, Musk likely isn't giving back any more than he's already received in tax breaks from the US government for developing electric vehicles in the first place.

How naive are you? The fed probably cut that out, either before, or when, he bailed and built a factory in China.

How much in taxes is he paying to the PRC? Oddly, that wasn't mentioned..

Gigafactory Shanghai - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

You know, most human males stop believing that professional wrestling is "real", a couple of years into puberty. (Not to go too far off topic).

 

[Uncle Al]

It sounds good but let's see him release his tax records so it can be verified .....

 

[netman]

Elon Musk is obviously lying...!

 

[captaincranky]

It sounds good but let's see him release his tax records so it can be verified .....

Hm, that would likely be as, "easy to do", as getting Trump to release his.

 

[Aceseven]

11 billion? from one dude? guess they don't need any from me...?

 

[Dimitriid]

Well this is about 11 billion more than he has ever paid while making money off of corporate welfare so, good..

Not just corporate welfare but worker exploitation complete with union busting behavior. He's basically just a cancer on society and should have 100% of his "net worth" taken away and given to 100% of their workers.

 

[Sausagemeat]

OK listen, the plain, cold, hard, honest facts are, Musk likely isn't giving back any more than he's already received in tax breaks from the US government for developing electric vehicles in the first place.

How naive are you? The fed probably cut that out, either before, or when, he bailed and built a factory in China.

How much in taxes is he paying to the PRC? Oddly, that wasn't mentioned..

Gigafactory Shanghai - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

You know, most human males stop believing that professional wrestling is "real", a couple of years into puberty. (Not to go too far off topic).

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

 

[Sausagemeat]

Not just corporate welfare but worker exploitation complete with union busting behavior. He's basically just a cancer on society and should have 100% of his "net worth" taken away and given to 100% of their workers.

No, the cancer in society is the people who think it’s ok to just go and seize things from people for whatever reason they feel like. What’s your evidence for worker exploitation? And what’s the law that says his wealth should be forcibly taken from him? Or are you just lashing out in envy of his wealth? Fortunately thugs like you are not in power…

 

[captaincranky]

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

Because I'm not as heavily, (actually not at all), invested into hero worship of lord Musk as you are. Nor will I ever be.

Maybe if you are, (or ever become), a middle class American taxpayer, you should, or would be concerned how much he pays in taxes, as he flies over your (potential), foreclosure eviction in his Gulfstrean G-650..

You do understand that owing back real estate taxes can put you out on the street, right? That is, unless you can find a news camera to play into about your plight.

 

[Sausagemeat]

Because I'm not as heavily, (actually not at all), invested into hero worship of lord Musk as you are. Nor will I ever be.

Maybe if you are, (or ever become), a middle class American taxpayer, you should, or would be concerned how much he pays in taxes, as he flies over your foreclosure eviction in his Gulfstrean G-650..

I don’t worship Musk. I just don’t hate him. I don’t know him. There are far far more people out there who are more worthy of being hated than someone like Elon Musk. But I have little time for hating celebrities, its a waste of energy.

And I’m a dual national British American. I declare my income to the IRS every year but I currently in the UK for the next 6 months and then im going back to Alaska (who don’t charge me any tax at all). I believe in personal privacy His tax receipts are not a concern of mine or yours. Of course this headline is obviously part of a media stunt by Musk. He’s trying to win over people like you. But the fact is he could pay 1 trillion in tax and you still would be uttering expletives about the dude. The stupidest thing Musk has ever done has been to try to win over his haters.

I do however appreciate achievement and progress regardless of how much money the person doing it has made. You can dislike Musk all you want, you cant deny his achievements have been good for all of us. Most importantly however, humans always progress through private enterprise. If we shoot down our entrepreneurs everytime they are succesful and get rich we are only going to kill innovation. One day someone is going to create a fusion reactor and make significant progress against climate change and people like you will be hurling expletives at them for having the audacity to only pay $1bn in taxes..

 

[Mugsy]

Musk loves being a snot to Warren.

Warren points out all the Federal tax loopholes that allowed him to pay pennies on the dollar for years, so he dumps a bunch of stock pushing tax bill to the moon, then says, "If you opened your eyes..."

What? If she opened her eyes she'd be able to see into the future? SMH.

 

[captaincranky]

But the fact is he could pay 1 trillion in tax and you still would be uttering expletives about the dude. The stupidest thing Musk has ever done has been to try to win over his haters.

Musk has never tried to "win over his haters", only leeched off his groupies and governments.

I don't believe Musk has "developed" anything on his own. He doesn't have the education or the talent to do that. He hawks for the money,(**) and them hovers over his workers, (helicopter boss), and demands they come up with something to match the last thing he's read in a sci-fi magazine..

As for the tax issue, let's suppose you should have paid $40,000 in real estate taxes, but you only intend to pay $11,000. So, you find a TV camera, and tell the public how much you think you should be venerated for paying the 11 grand. Would we be expected to laud you for your efforts?

(**) He's not a scientist. He's a promoter, he's a financier, he's a con artist, a grifter, and a self promoting scoundrel. But, I will grant you, he's the best at any of those I've ever seen.

But to listen to you tell it, he invented the whistle and the flamethrower. He wasn't just scamming his groupies for money.

AND BTW, if somebody came up with a workable cold fusion reactor, I'd laud them for it, whether I liked them personally, or not

Before I forget, here's the place those raw materials for all those environmentally friendly car batteries come from:

The dystopian lake filled by the world’s tech lust

Hidden in an unknown corner of China is a toxic, nightmarish lake created by our thirst for smartphones, gadgets and green tech, discovers Tim Maughan.

www.bbc.com

 

[nodfor]

Musk moved his company's HQ from the failed leftist state of California to Texas, has opposed the lockdown hysteria and all these on top of making tons of money - leftists will hate him no matter what he does.

 

[captaincranky]

He pioneered electric vehicle technology.

Oh did he now?

History of the electric vehicle - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[BigRedPDX]

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.

 

[paul1122]

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.

 

[captaincranky]

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.

Here, sing along with this: