Elon Musk, the wealthiest man in the world, expects to pay a hefty tax bill this year. "For those wondering, I will pay over $11 billion in taxes this year," the Tesla CEO tweeted.
Mr. Musk became the world's richest person earlier this year. Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimates his wealth at $244.2bn, while Tesla is worth around $1tn. Musk was named Time Magazine's Person of the Year. Curiously enough, Senator Warren later tweeted: "Let's change the rigged tax code so 'The Person of the Year' will actually pay taxes and stop freeloading off everyone else."
Notably, Elon Musk is not the only US billionaire who will face colossal taxes by the end of 2021. Many large investors will also lose the lion's share of income from the sell-off of shares from their portfolios to pay taxes.
The biggest US tycoons, unwilling to pay taxes in 2022, got rid of their shares after their sharp rise. Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and the second richest person in the world, sold $9 billion worth of Amazon stock. Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of the largest social network Facebook (currently Meta), followed his example. He got rid of the company's shares worth $4.5 billion.
