Twittersphere Say "Yes" To Elon Musk's Offer To Sell 10% Of Tesla Stock Estimated To Be Over $20 Billion

Tesla CEO Elon Musk polled his followers on social media platform Twitter over the weekend, asking them if he should sell 10% of his Tesla stock, worth over $20 billion.

As of Friday, Musk’s shareholding in Tesla was about 170.5 million shares and selling 10 percent would amount to close to $21bn based on Friday’s closing

Musk, a strong vocal critic of Democrats’ proposed new annual tax on unrealized capital gains of billionaires, has promised to abide by the poll results. Musk has previously said he would have to exercise a large number of stock options in the next three months.

Earlier last week, Musk had tweeted criticising the proposal and said that it will eventually be extended to even middle class “Eventually, they run out of other people’s money and then they come for you.” he tweeted.

Democrats in the U.S Senate have proposed tax billionaires’ stocks and other tradeable assets to help fund President Joe Biden’s social spending agenda and fill a loophole that has allowed them to defer capital gains taxes indefinitely.

Much of Musk's wealth is held in shares of Tesla, which does not pay him a cash salary.

“I only have stock, thus the only way for me to pay taxes personally is to sell stock,” he tweeted.

In 2018, Musk got in to trouble with U.S regulators after he tweeted out that he was considering taking his electric vehicle (EV) company Tesla Inc, private at $420 a share.

Musk later reached a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) under which he agreed to relinquish the role of the Tesla Inc's chairman but was allowed to remain the Chief Executive Officer (CEO).