Sina Science and Technology News on the morning of June 10, Beijing time, it is reported thatTeslaCEO Elon Musk (Elon Musk) responded to questions about the small amount of CEO taxes paid by him and several other companies. A report earlier this week showed the growth of wealth and taxes paid by several of the world's richest people, including Musk, Jeff Bezos (Jeff Bezos), Warren Buffett (Warren Buffet) and Michael Bloomberg (Michael Bloomberg), who it claimed did not pay enough taxes.
But interestingly, Musk's wealth mainly comes from Tesla.Stock. Tesla's share price has soared over the past year, so Musk's wealth has also risen rapidly. However, Musk himself does not receive his salary from Tesla, and his shares are not taxed unless he sells them, in which case he is subject to capital gains tax. "I won't cash it out, it just accumulates in Tesla's bank account," Mr Musk said. "
Musk explained more about his income today. The first thing to note is that Musk did receive the award based on the company's performance as stipulated in the contract. Musk will receive these awards only if Tesla achieves delivery volume, profitability or other proof that CEO is leading the company to make great progress, and they are all awarded in the form of stock options.
Musk is here.Twitter"I will only sell Tesla shares when the option is about to expire, because I have no other choice," it said. In addition, I will continue to pay income tax in California commensurate with my time in the state, which will be a huge amount. "
He added: "Yes, I have sold my house in California, leaving only one house in the Bay area, which has been rented to other people for activities." I am working with Tesla to study sustainable energy and with SpaceX to protect the future through multi-planetary life. In addition, I also work with Neuralink to mitigate artificial intelligence risks and with Boring to solve traffic problems. "
It is important to note that taxes are aimed at realized gains, not an increase in equity ownership. If so, Mr Musk will have to sell a lot of shares to make up for the tax he has to pay. However, this is not only bad for Tesla, but also basically bad for the shares of any large company, because the chief executive will give up their majority stake to pay high tax rates. In addition, most of the wealth owned by these chief executives is in the shares they own, not in a sum of cash in their bank accounts. However, without knowing the situation, people only pay attention to the "personal assets" of the richest people, and similar reports continue to spread and ferment through the media.
Simply put, taxes are based on income, not wealth. That's why Musk and other wealthy CEO don't pay tens of millions or even billions of dollars in taxes each year.