Elon Musk on Saturday asked his 62.5 million followers on Twitter in a poll if he should sell 10 per cent of his Tesla stock.
Mr Musk's shareholding in Tesla comes to about 170.5 million shares as of June 30. Selling 10 per cent would result in proceeds of about $21 billion, based on Friday's closing price, according to Reuters calculations.
Referring to a "billionaires' tax" proposed by Democrats in the US Senate, Mr Musk tweeted that "much is made lately of unrealised gains being a means of tax avoidance, so I propose selling 10% of my Tesla stock".
Analysts say he may have to offload a significant number of shares anyway to pay taxes since a large number of his stock options will expire next year.
Mr Musk followed up with another tweet saying he would abide by the results of the poll, whichever way it goes.
The poll received over a million responses in three hours since he posted it, with 54 per cent of respondents approving the proposal to sell the shares. The poll is scheduled to end around 3pm ET (8pm GMT) on Sunday.
The comments from Mr Musk came after the proposal in the US congress to tax billionaires' assets to help pay for President Joe Biden's social and climate-change agenda.
Mr Musk is currently the world's richest person and owner of several companies, including SpaceX and Neuralink. He has previously criticised the billionaires' tax on Twitter.
His tweet raised some eyebrows in the world of finance.
"We are witnessing the Twitter masses deciding the outcome of a $25 billion coin flip," Venture investor Chamath Palihapitiya wrote on Twitter in response to Musk's tweet.
"Looking forward to the day when the richest person in the world paying some tax does not depend on a Twitter poll," Berkeley economist Gabriel Zucman tweeted.
Musk got into trouble with a tweet about Tesla in 2018.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission sued Mr Musk after he tweeted that he had “funding secured” to take Tesla private at $420 a share.
The agency said the tweet, which sent Tesla’s share price up as much as 13.3 per cent, breached securities laws. Mr Musk later reached a deal with the regulator to end the dispute.
"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 on Twitter.
Tesla shares recently hit record high after it received its biggest order of 100,000 electric cars from Hertz.
Tesla board members, including Elon Musk's brother Kimbal, have recently sold their shares in the electric car maker. Kimbal Musk sold 88,500 Tesla shares while fellow board member Ira Ehrenpreis sold shares worth more than $200 million.
Mr Musk recently said on Twitter he would sell $6 billion in Tesla stock and donate it to the World Food Programme, provided the organisation disclosed more information about how it spent its money.
He and WFP head David Beasley have been engaged in a heated debate since Mr Beasley last week challenged billionaires to give more of their wealth to end hunger.
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Key findings of Jenkins report
- Founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al Banna, "accepted the political utility of violence"
- Views of key Muslim Brotherhood ideologue, Sayyid Qutb, have “consistently been understood” as permitting “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” and “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
- Muslim Brotherhood at all levels has repeatedly defended Hamas attacks against Israel, including the use of suicide bombers and the killing of civilians.
- Laying out the report in the House of Commons, David Cameron told MPs: "The main findings of the review support the conclusion that membership of, association with, or influence by the Muslim Brotherhood should be considered as a possible indicator of extremism."
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
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Key facilities
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
AI traffic lights to ease congestion at seven points to Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Street
The seven points are:
Shakhbout bin Sultan Street
Dhafeer Street
Hadbat Al Ghubainah Street (outbound)
Salama bint Butti Street
Al Dhafra Street
Rabdan Street
Umm Yifina Street exit (inbound)
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How much do leading UAE’s UK curriculum schools charge for Year 6?
- Nord Anglia International School (Dubai) – Dh85,032
- Kings School Al Barsha (Dubai) – Dh71,905
- Brighton College Abu Dhabi - Dh68,560
- Jumeirah English Speaking School (Dubai) – Dh59,728
- Gems Wellington International School – Dubai Branch – Dh58,488
- The British School Al Khubairat (Abu Dhabi) - Dh54,170
- Dubai English Speaking School – Dh51,269
*Annual tuition fees covering the 2024/2025 academic year
Pearls on a Branch: Oral Tales
Najlaa Khoury, Archipelago Books
Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
The National Archives, Abu Dhabi
Founded over 50 years ago, the National Archives collects valuable historical material relating to the UAE, and is the oldest and richest archive relating to the Arabian Gulf.
Much of the material can be viewed on line at the Arabian Gulf Digital Archive - https://www.agda.ae/en
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