Musk asked the approval of his Twitter Followers if he should sell 10% of Tesla

THE CEO of Tesla Inc., and currently the world's richest person, Elon Musk tweeted on Saturday and asked his 62.5 million followers on Twitter in a poll if he should sell 10% of the stocks of Tesla.

Musk said he could face a "massive" tax bill this year as he has to exercise a large number of stock options coming due next year.

"Note, I do not take a cash salary or bonus from anywhere. I only have stock, thus the only way for me to pay taxes personally is to sell stock," Musk said https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1457064697782489088 on Twitter on Saturday.

"Much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance, so I propose selling 10% of my Tesla stock," he said, referring to a "billionaires' tax" proposed by Democrats.

Musk has criticized the proposal, which would affect 700 billionaires and impose taxes for long-term capital gains on tradable assets, whether or not they have been sold.

Musk said that he will abide by the results of the poll, whichever way it goes.

In just 7 hours, the poll received near 2 million responses after he posted it, with 55% of respondents approving the proposal to sell the shares. The poll is scheduled to end around 3 p.m. ET on Sunday.

Musk's shareholding in Tesla comes to about 170.5 million shares as of June 30 and selling 10% of his stock would amount close to $21 billion based on Friday's closing, according to Reuters calculations.


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