Elon Musk reveals he'll pay over 80,000 Cr in taxes this year, leaves netizens dumbfounded

As the US administration pushes to ‘Tax the rich’, tech billionaire Elon Musk has revealed that he will pay more than US$ 11 billion in taxes this year. The SpaceX founder is the world’s richest person with a net worth of over US$244 billion, according to Forbes. On Sunday, he took to Twitter to reveal that he would pay the said tax- an amount that could constitute a record payment of US Internal Revenue Services. 

Interestingly, this high amount of tax comes after Musk exercised almost 15 million options and sold millions of shares to cover the taxes related to those transactions. A separate report by ProPublica revealed that the Tesla founder paid less income tax as compared to his humongous wealth. However, Musk has many times defended himself stressing that he does not draw a salary from Tesla and that he pays an effective tax rate of 53% on stock options he exercised. 

Meanwhile, the call to increase the tax rate for billionaires has gained renewed momentum in the US. The Biden administration has proposed a flat tax rate of 20 per cent, replacing the current progressive tax system. According to the tax foundation, the change would benefit the Buden administration by generating $1.1 trillion in tax revenue over 10 years, increasing GDP by 1.3 per cent, and adding 1.2 million jobs.

Here's how the internet reacted 

Last week, US Senator Elizabeth Warren slammed Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s designation as Time’s 2021 ‘Person of the Year’. In a tweet, the Massachusetts senator called for a change in the “rigged” tax code and stated that ‘The Person of the Year’ should “stop freeloading” off everyone else. "Let’s change the rigged tax code so The Person of the Year will actually pay taxes and stop freeloading off everyone else," she wrote. 

In a separate tweet, she also shared a new Time cover created by American for Tax Fairness with the words “TAX ME” placed over a photo of Musk, alongside text that said Musk paid 0% in federal income tax in 2018. She also retweeted a post that stated, “It’s *TIME* for Elon Musk to pay for his fair shares in taxes.” 

(Image: AP)