Elon musk to experience a USD 15 billion tax bill and expected to sell its 10% stake in Tesla

Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk is witnessing a bill comprising of taxes amounting to over USD 15 billion in the coming months over its stock options, which includes selling its Tesla stock this year likely despite the Twitter vote. Elon Musk initiated a conversation with his 62.7 million followers on Twitter over the weekend whether or not should he sell his 10% stake in Tesla holdings. The majority of this is in unrealized gains which is a means of tax evasion, so Musk is proposing on selling its 10% stake in Tesla. The Tesla CEO stated that he would work in compliance with the results of the poll, no matter the way it goes. The results stated a 58% majority favoring the sale of Tesla and 42% going against it, suggesting he is expected to sell his shares.

Elon Musk is anticipated to begin selling its millions of shares by this quarter. The reason being a looming tax bill of over USD 15 billion. Elon Musk was awarded these options back in 2012 as part of the compensation plan. Since he doesn’t take out a salary or any of the cash bonuses, the wealth comes from awards on stocks and the gains from the Tesla’s share price. The 2012 award was received for over 22.8 million shares with a strike price of USD 6.24 per share. Tesla shares registered a closing at USD 1,222.09 past Friday, stating that the gains on the shares on tesla were about 28 billion.

Tesla Inc. has also recently provided a disclosure that Musk has been taking out loans using his shares as a means of collateral, and with the help of sales, Elon Musk may have stated his desire to repay some of his loan obligations. As Tesla Inc. noted in the third-quarter 10-Q filing this year that if the prices of our common stock registered a decline significantly, Mr. Elon Musk may be forced by some banking institutions to make a sale of its shares in Tesla for satisfying the loan obligations if he couldn’t do with other means.