In a Twitter "war of words" with Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Tuesday local time, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that his tax payment will exceed any person in history, "just open your eyes for 2 seconds to know that I will pay more taxes this year than any American in history."
Musk's tweet was a response to Warren's online criticism of the U.S. tax law and Musk. Warren has been pushing the U.S. to pass legislation that would tax not only the income of the rich, but also their assets. Musk has cashed out about $13 billion by selling Tesla stock since October and is subject to income tax. Musk reportedly needs to pay at least $7.6 billion in taxes in 2021. Depending on the number of shares sold, Musk could pay as much as $15 billion (about 95.5 billion yuan) in taxes this year. If the U.S. passes the Democratic-pushed rich tax, Musk will have to pay up to $50 billion in taxes for the first five years.
Musk tweeted "Big War" Senator Warren
On Monday, Musk was named "Person of the Year" by Time magazine, but was attacked by Warren.
Warren believes that Musk does not pay taxes and is a prostitute. Warren tweeted:
Let's change the rigged tax code so that the man of the year can really pay his taxes and no longer be a prostitute from other people.
She also shared a new Cover of Time magazine produced by the Americans for Tax Fairness.
On the cover is a photo of Musk with the caption "TAX ME" (Tax Me) next to it:
Musk paid zero federal income taxes in 2018, his average effective tax rate was only 3.27%, and his wealth exploded by $240 billion during the pandemic, most of which will be tax-free.
Musk is also not a fuel-efficient lamp. In the face of such attacks, of course, you will not choose to swallow your anger, and your backhand will respond on Twitter:
You remind me of when I was a kid, my friend's mom yelled at everyone for no reason when she got angry.
According to real-time data from Bloomberg billionaires, Musk is the richest man in the world, with a net worth of $255 billion.