Elon Musk: Will pay over $11 billion in taxes this year

Elon Musk, Tesla CEO, said on Monday that he will pay $11 billion in taxes this year. He wrote in a tweet, “For those wondering, I will pay over $11 billion in taxes this year.” Recently, he was also named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year.

Elon Musk became the world’s richest person earlier this year. Bloomberg Billionaires Index puts his wealth at $243bn. Reportedly, Tesla is worth around $1tn and SpaceX is worth $100bn. He sold off $14 billion worth of Tesla stock in early November. According to CNBC, Musk’s wealth comes from stock awards at Tesla’s share price. According to the BBC, many wealthiest Americans don’t take a directly taxable salary. The wealthiest citizens hold their wealth in shares and other investments. They take out loans using those investments and assets as collateral.

Elon Musk’s taxes

As per the report by ProPublica, Musk paid $455 million in taxes on $1.52 billion of income between 2014 and 2018. ProPublica also published a report in June 2021. The report pointed out that Musk paid little income tax relative to his outsize wealth.

When he was named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year, Senator Elizabeth Warren questioned the decision of Time Magazine to make Elon Musk its Person of the Year. Warren wrote in his tweet, “Let’s change the rigged tax code so ‘The Person of the Year’ will actually pay taxes and stop freeloading off everyone else.” To which, Musk replied,  “I will pay more taxes than any American in history this year.” He wrote this on his Twitter account.

Elon Musk

Elon Musk is a billionaire and is a co-founder of 8 companies – Zip2, PayPal, SpaceX, Tesla, Hyperloop, OpenAI, Neuralink, and The Boring Company. By selling around 20,000 “flamethrowers” with a complimentary “boring fire extinguisher”, Elon Musk raised $10 million. He sold those products in ‘The Boring Company’.