Tesla CEO Elon Musk, a well known Twitter addict, thought it might be a grand concept to let the individuals on the platform resolve whether or not he ought to pay taxes or not, so he made a poll. Musk requested the Twitterverse whether or not he ought to promote 10% of his Tesla inventory, saying he was ready to honor the outcomes of the ballot, “whichever way it goes.” Twitter voted “yes.”

The tech magnate launched the ballot on Saturday in gentle of the current legislative proposal to tax unrealized features—or income current on paper only that don’t develop into actual till the funding is offered—, which some have stated enable billionaires to keep away from paying taxes. For context, Musk defined that he solely receives cost from his corporations in inventory and doesn’t take a money wage or bonus. Therefore, he said, “the only way for me to pay taxes personally is to sell stock.”

Musk owns greater than 17% of Tesla inventory, which is valued at greater than $200 billion, in response to the Wall Street Journal. Selling 10% of that at present costs would quantity to about $21 billion.

“Much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance, so I propose selling 10% of my Tesla stock,” Musk wrote in the tweet along with his ballot, including: “I will abide by the results of this poll, whichever way it goes.”

A complete of three.5 million individuals voted in Musk’s ballot, of which 57.9% stated he ought to promote and 42.1% stated he shouldn’t.

Since the ballot ended, nonetheless, the Twitterverse hasn’t heard a lot extra from Musk on the topic. In a reply to a tweet asking if the ballot went the best way he needed it to, Musk stated he was ready to simply accept both consequence.

Last month, Musk criticized a proposal by Senate Finance Chairman Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, to tax unrealized features on publicly traded property, saying (on Twitter) that the proposal would finally attain much less rich taxpayers as a result of “[e]ventually, they run out of other people’s money and then they come for you.”

For what it’s price, Wyden’s proposal was eviscerated virtually as quickly because it was launched, nevertheless it sparked an vital debate, one Musk determined to wade into.

Although Musk billed this as a method for the general public to resolve what he does along with his cash, CNBC points out that it was probably the Tesla exec would have offered inventory even when Twitter didn’t pull a Palpatine and inform him to do it.

This is as a result of Musk is going through a billion-dollar tax invoice on the 22.8 million shares he was awarded as inventory choices in 2012. In order to train the choices, Musk has to pay earnings tax on what he’s gained on these shares at their present value, which comes out to a achieve of roughly $28 billion. CNBC studies that resulting from a mixed state and federal tax price of 54.1%, the Tesla CEO stands to pay $15 billion.

Musk introduced in September that he can be promoting a few of his choices within the fourth quarter of this yr as a result of they have been set to run out. The Tesla CEO doesn’t normally promote inventory he already has, however he has done so prior to now to pay the taxes on his inventory choices.

Musk’s ballot and its outcomes created a lot to speak about on Twitter. The ballot even earned a response from Wyden.

“Whether or not the world’s wealthiest man pays any taxes at all shouldn’t depend on the results of a Twitter poll. It’s time for the Billionaires Income Tax,” the senator tweeted.

To put this all in perspective, a report this previous summer time discovered that Musk paid $0 in earnings tax in 2018. So yeah, any quantity of earnings tax he pays is a small step ahead for humanity.