Twitter to decide on Musk's $21 billion Tesla stake; Have you voted in the poll yet?

Elon Musk has put the fate of $21 billion in the hands of Twitterati as the eccentric billionaire proposed selling 10% of his Tesla stock on Twitter and took a poll of people on the social network to see if they supported it.

“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?” he said. Musk added a poll function, so users could vote “Yes” or “No.”

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The poll received over 2 million responses in just seven hours posting with 55% of respondents approving the proposal to sell the shares.

Why does Musk want to sell Tesla shares?

The world's richest man is about to face a problem of plenty when his stock options expire at Tesla by the end of this year.
As the Technoking of Tesla exercises his stock options his marginal tax rate will be over 50%.

What is 10% of Tesla stock worth?

The amount of stock in play is worth about $21 billion, based on Musk's holdings of 170.5 million Tesla shares (the amount of stock Musk would sell is even greater if his options are included). The stock, which surged 74% this year and is just shy of an all time high.

Why should the market be worried if Twitter votes 'yes'

“I will abide by the results of this poll, whichever way it goes,” Musk, one of the world’s richest people, added. It wasn’t immediately clear what that proposed sale would amount to. The number of shares Musk could be set to offload bis equivalent to 80% of the average daily trading volume for Tesla in the past three months.

Tesla, Taxes & Twitter!

Earlier this year a reported stated that Musk’s tax bill amounted to zero in 2018. Musk later shot back, saying the reporting was “tricky” and “misleading.” He added the number was so low because he does not draw a salary, something that he reiterated in his latest tweet. “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,” he said on Saturday.

Musk's putting Tesla stake up for grabs

Saturday’s tweet is the second time within a week that Musk has discussed selling Tesla shares. Elon Musk challenged a United Nations official who said just a small percentage of the billionaire’s wealth could help solve world hunger. He wrote that he would sell Tesla stock if the World Food Program could describe the accounting on his Twitter thread.