“For those who are wondering, this year I will pay more than 11,000 million dollars in taxes,” wrote this Monday (12/20/2021) businessman Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, on Twitter. His fortune, estimated at $ 244 billion, comes mainly from his stakes in electric car maker Tesla, of which he sold about $ 14 billion in shares this year.
When Senator Elizabeth Warren criticized the “Times” magazine last week for choosing Musk as “man of the year”, the businessman responded to the Democratic policy also through the social network, where he has more than sixty million followers: “This year I will pay more taxes than any American in history.”
In early November, Musk asked his then 62.5 million Twitter followers whether he should sell 10% of his shares. “There’s been a lot of talk of unrealized profits as a way to avoid paying taxes so I’m proposing to sell 10% of my shares in Tesla. Do you support it?” Musk asked.
Cover of Time magazine in which Elon Musk is chosen as “person of the year” 2021.
The result of the survey conducted by Musk was a majority of “Yes” so the businessman proceeded to sell 14,000 million dollars in shares of the company. However, the decision seemed to have been made previously. Musk conducted the survey before a series of company stock options that he received in 2012 as payment for his position as CEO at Tesla expired in August 2022. Had he waited for 2022, Musk would have had to pay a higher amount in taxes.
According to specialized media, Musk finances his lifestyle with loans he obtains using his shares in Tesla as collateral, which allows him to reduce what he pays in taxes. This year, the journalistic organization ProPublica published a report in which it said that Musk paid 455 million dollars in taxes between 2014 and 2018 even though his assets increased in that period to 13.900 million dollars. And in 2018, the businessman did not pay federal taxes.
In 2020, Musk already changed his official residence from Los Angeles, where he had lived for the past 20 years, to Austin, Texas. The change of residence allowed Musk to significantly reduce the taxes he pays. And in October, Musk said he would move Tesla’s headquarters from Palo Alto, California, to Austin, Texas, justifying the decision because of the high cost of living in the Californian town.
lgc (efe/twitter)
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Elon Musk: From Colonies on Mars to the Hyperloop
A serial entrepreneur
Technological visionary Elon Musk intends to revolutionize transportation, both on Earth and in space, and the way humans lead their lives. In the past two decades, the South African-born American has emerged as one of the most recognizable faces in Silicon Valley. Musk was a co-founder of PayPal, which bought eBay for 1.2 billion euros in 2002.
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Elon Musk: From Colonies on Mars to the Hyperloop
Gaze into space
In 2002, Musk founded SpaceX, a space transportation construction and services company that is currently valued at more than $ 20 billion. Their goal is to make space travel cheaper and eventually allow human beings to live on Mars, thus giving humanity the chance to become a multiplanetary species.
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Elon Musk: From Colonies on Mars to the Hyperloop
Mission to mars
SpaceX’s Falcon and Dragon rocket programs already deliver space-level payloads. The company has said it wants to launch a cargo flight to Mars in 2022, followed by the first manned flight to the Red Planet in 2024.
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Elon Musk: From Colonies on Mars to the Hyperloop
Transform transportation
After founding SpaceX, Musk created Tesla in 2003 to create autonomous electric vehicles and renewable energy solutions. But production problems have plagued the company, whose future depends heavily on the Model 3, its first budget car with massive aspirations.
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Elon Musk: From Colonies on Mars to the Hyperloop
The Big Tesla Coming
After the foray into electric cars, Musk wrote a new chapter in his vision book by unveiling the prototype of a futuristic electric truck. The Tesla Semi will go into production in 2019 and would have a range of 500 miles, an engine and battery that would last 1,700,000 miles, and total operating costs much more convenient than diesel models, Musk said.
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Elon Musk: From Colonies on Mars to the Hyperloop
Solar roof
In addition to SpaceX and Tesla, Musk is also investing in SolarCity to realize his vision of a future powered by the power of the sun. Musk says that homes equipped with the Tesla sunroof will be able to power the Powerwall, a sleek storage unit designed to double as a charging station that would serve both the home and a Tesla electric car.
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Elon Musk: From Colonies on Mars to the Hyperloop
Dreaming of an electric future
In 2015, Musk showed Powerwall, this home battery whose initial sales price was $ 3,500 for 10 kWh and $ 3,000 for 7 kWh. Powerwall can be controlled via smartphone from anywhere. But low production rates have emerged as one of the main problems with the idea.
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Elon Musk: From Colonies on Mars to the Hyperloop
Hyperloop
Hyperloop rose to global prominence in 2013, when Musk came up with the idea. It is seen as a new generation transport, a “fifth” means, after airplanes, trains, cars and ships. The Hyperloop uses magnetic levitation and moves through vacuum-sealed tubes to move people and cargo at supersonic speeds estimated at more than 1,000 kilometers per hour.
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Elon Musk: From Colonies on Mars to the Hyperloop
Merge the brain with artificial intelligence
In 2016, Musk co-founded Neuralink, a neurotechnology company that would be seeking to facilitate the interaction between the brain and the computer through the integration between human beings and artificial intelligence. The project is in an early stage of development.
Author: Srinivas Mazumdaru
