Tesla Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Saturday that he would offload 10% of his stock in the company if a majority of Twitter users voted yes in a poll he shared on the microblogging platform. Nearly 58% of the 3.5 million Twitter users who voted in the poll were in favour of Elon Musk selling his stake in Tesla in order to pay tax - and many of them joked about how they helped the world's richest man decide the fate of stock worth around $21 billion.
"Much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance, so I propose selling 10% of my Tesla stock," Elon Musk tweeted Saturday when he shared the poll, referring to a "billionaires' tax" proposed by Democrats.
Elon Musk has previously said he would have to exercise a large number of stock options in the next three months, which would create a big tax bill. Selling some of his stock could free up funds to pay the taxes. The Tesla chief also said he does not take cash salary or bonus "from anywhere", and only has stock.
As 57.9% of people who voted on his Twitter poll said he should sell his stock in Tesla, Elon Musk tweeted that he had been prepared to accept either outcome and would "abide by the results of the poll", which sparked much hilarity on social media.
A number of people joked that the fact they had advised Elon Musk on Tesla stock would be going on their resumes.
"Putting this in my resume: 'helped Elon Musk make a decision involving $20b+ worth of stock'," a Twitter user quipped.
"Brb writing on my resume: 'Advised multi-billionaire on stock sale transaction'," another said.
Many appointed themselves online financial consultants to the world's richest man
And others took digs at Tesla shareholders
As of June 30, Musk's shareholding in Tesla came to about 170.5 million shares and selling 10% would amount to close to $21 billion based on Friday's closing, according to Reuters calculations.
US Senate Democrats have unveiled a proposal to tax billionaires' stocks and other tradeable assets to help finance President Joe Biden's social spending agenda and fill a loophole that has allowed them to defer capital gains taxes indefinitely.
Mr Musk has criticized the proposal saying, "Eventually, they run out of other people's money and then they come for you."
