Tesla Boss Musk Hints at Selling More Shares

Elon Musk has hinted at the sale of even more Tesla shares. The chief executive of the electric car manufacturer did this in a series of tweets with US Senator Bernie Sanders, who had repeated an earlier call for the super-rich to pay more taxes.

Musk tweeted, “I keep forgetting you’re still alive” and “Do you want me to sell more stock, Bernie? Say it…”.

The 80-year-old former Democrat who ran for president in 2016 and 2020 tweeted on Saturday that “we must demand that the super-rich pay their share”. According to Bloomberg’s billionaire index, Musk is the wealthiest person globally, with a net worth of $294 billion.

When selling more shares, Musk would have to pay capital gains tax on the sale proceeds. This has arisen in the United States after Democrats submitted a proposal to tax the super-rich more heavily by focusing on stocks. These are usually only taxed when they are sold.

Musk sold a total of more than $ 6.9 billion in Tesla shares last week. He did so after a Twitter poll in which he asked his followers if he should sell 10 percent of his stake in the car maker. Millions of people voted in the poll. After the poll and the sale of the securities, Tesla’s share price fell sharply.

Musk said in October he wanted to move Tesla’s headquarters from present-day Palo Alto, California, to Austin, Texas. This state has no income tax. On Saturday, Musk tweeted that he had been living in Texas for two years.