Musk, the world's richest man, said on the latest social media that he will pay more than $11 billion in taxes this year, which is considered to be a record for payments made by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Previously, he had exercised nearly 15 million stock options and sold millions of shares to pay taxes.
According to media reports, Musk, as the founder and CEO of many companies such as tesla electric vehicles and space company SpaceX, is listed by the Bloomberg Billionaire Index as the world's richest person with a net worth of $243 billion. It is estimated that if he exercises all of his stock options that expire next year, he will face more than $10 billion in tax bills this year.
Musk was selected by Time magazine earlier this month as the 2021 Person of the Year, but Was questioned by Massachusetts Sen. Warren about the tax payment situation and even criticized "taking advantage of everyone". He tweeted at the time that he would "pay more taxes this year than any American in history."
Musk launched a vote online in November, asking netizens if he should sell 10% of Tesla stock, and admitted that it was "the only way I can pay personal taxes." Finally, of the more than 3.5 million votes, 57.9 percent favored the sale of Tesla stock and 42.1 percent against it.
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