Musk's taxes this year, stacked higher than Everest, can pay the president of the United States 2750 years' salary

In late December, Tesla CEO Musk said on his social platform of 67 million followers that he would pay at least $11 billion (about 70.1 billion yuan) in taxes in 2021, which would set a record for individual tax payments in U.S. history if completed.

Billionaire tax targets

What is the concept of tax payments over $11 billion? According to nandu big data research institute, the annual salary of the us president is about 400,000 US dollars, which can pay at least 2750 years of salary to the US president; a high-end Tesla Model X is about 100,000 US dollars, which can buy at least 110,000 high-end Tesla MODEL X; the average annual tax paid by American households is 15,748 US dollars, which is about equal to the total annual tax paid by 698,000 American families; in addition, this money is equivalent to Armenia (12.8 billion US dollars), The GDP of small European countries such as North Macedonia (US$12.5 billion), Moldova (US$11.2 billion), And Kosovo (US$7.48 billion) in 2020.

In the past year, Tesla's market capitalization has exceeded $1 trillion, making it the world's largest car company by market capitalization. Musk's value has also risen as Tesla's stock price soared, becoming the world's richest man for the first time in January 2021 and competing with Bezos for the top spot, becoming a key target for THE "billionaire income tax" of US politicians.

Musk has publicly opposed the plutocratic tax on social platforms, in his view, even if all billionaires are taxed by 100%, it is a drop in the bucket for repaying the US National Debt, and the government still needs to tax the general public. ”

At the end of this year, after Time magazine named Musk the Person of the Year, U.S. Congressman Elizabeth Warren used the tax issue to satirize him, calling for tax reform so that the Person of the Year can really pay taxes, and the politician has been advocating higher taxes on the rich and their assets. The Tax Fairness Association noted that Musk paid zero federal income taxes in 2018, with an average effective tax rate of only 3.27 percent, but his wealth exploded by $240 billion during the pandemic, most of which went unpaid.

In response, Musk said on social platforms that he will pay more than $11 billion in taxes this year, more than any American in history.

Dismantling huge tax bill sources

Behind Musk's huge tax bill, it is mainly the tax on stock option compensation. Nandu Big Data Research Institute learned that option cashing is short-term income, with the highest tax rate of 40.8%. This is only the federal tax rate, and the state tax has not yet been calculated. Musk moved from California to Texas last year, and this year officially moved Tesla's headquarters from California to Texas. Some states such as Texas, Florida, and Nevada have tax rates of 0%, but California's state taxes are as high as 10%.

In early November, Musk launched a vote on social platforms, announcing that he would decide whether to sell 10% of tesla shares he held based on the voting results, and received nearly 60% of the votes. Based on his holdings at the time, he expected to reduce his holdings by 17 million shares, and the amount of cash would be about $21 billion. However, in the process of reducing the cash while exercising options, Musk's Tesla shares have not decreased but increased.

According to the SEC disclosure documents, musk exercised more than 2.1 million Tesla stock options this week alone, while selling about 1 million shares to pay withholding taxes. As of now, exercising options at a price of $6.24 per share, Musk has exercised about 21.3 million shares of Tesla stock while selling about 15 million shares, net cashing out more than $15 billion after deducting exercise costs. If all 23 million options expire in August 2022, he will face more than $10 billion in taxes in 2021.

Some venture capital institutions believe that Musk's timing of selling Tesla shares is wise, because investors' enthusiasm for investment in the electric vehicle industry may decline in the future. In addition, in the case that Tesla's market value once exceeded the sum of the market value of traditional car giants, traditional car companies have announced the transformation into the new energy automobile industry, and the world has opened a battle for the electric vehicle market, forming a trend of encirclement and suppression.

According to documents released this week by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Tesla vehicles' touchscreen video game capabilities are under scrutiny. The agency received complaints this year about Tesla's entertainment feature, and after investigating about 580,000 Tesla vehicles, argued that playing games while driving "may distract drivers and increase the risk of crashing."

For now, Tesla has said it will update its software so that drivers and passengers can't use the game features while the vehicle is on the move. After Tesla's earlier series of crashes, the agency is also investigating Tesla's Autopilot system. Tesla has recalled about 135,000 vehicles this year due to touchscreen failures, and analysts believe the agency's investigation could lead to more recalls.

Producer: Nandu Big Data Research Institute

Data collection and analysis: Lin Xinxin

Draft: Liu Yinshan

Data source: Tesla official website, U.S. Census Bureau, IMF, public reports, etc