Following a Twitter poll he ran at the weekend, Tesla CEO Elon Musk is set to sell 10% of his stock in the company, causing shares to sink.
Turning to Twitter, Musk said, “Much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance, so I propose selling 10% of my Tesla stock. Do you support this?"
3.5 million Twitter users voted 57.9% in favour of the move by Musk, who launched the poll following criticism that he does not pay enough tax.
"Note, I do not take a cash salary or bonus from anywhere. I only have stock, thus the only way for me to pay taxes personally is to sell stock," Musk also tweeted. The 10% stock is worth approximately $21 billion.
Following Musk’s Twitter poll, shares in Tesla fell 7.6% in early trade on Germany’s Tradegate on Monday. In late October, Tesla passed a trillion dollars in market cap, joining several other big companies such as Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft. Around this time, some of Tesla’s board members chose to sell a large number of shares, including Elon Musk’s brother Kimbal Musk.
