Elon Musk, the world’s richest person with a fortune estimated at $243 billion, said he will pay $11 billion in taxes this year.
“For those wondering, I will pay over $11 billion in taxes this year,” the chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX, tweeted Sunday, without elaborating.
The declaration follows his spat last week with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who slammed the billionaire for “freeloading” by not paying taxes as she and other legislators consider changes to the tax code.
The tweak could force Musk and other tech bigwigs to fork over billions of dollars on their unrealized stock gains.
“Let’s change the rigged tax code so The Person of the Year will actually pay taxes and stop freeloading off everyone else,” Warren tweeted with a link to a story about Musk being named Time Magazine’s 2021 person of the year.
Warren and other progressive members of Congress have targeted Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and other tech moguls for a potential wealth tax — ruffling Musk’s feathers.
He responded to Warren’s tweet last week by calling her an “angry mom” and “Senator Karen” — sparking MSNBC host Joy Reid to jump into the feud.
“You remind me of when I was a kid and my friend’s angry Mom would just randomly yell at everyone for no reason,” Musk tweeted.
In November, Musk asked his 63 million Twitter followers whether he should sell 10 percent of his shares in Tesla and proceeded to do so after a majority voted yes.
He has sold off $14 billion of Tesla stock since early November – and likely would have done so without his followers advice because he faces a massive $15 billion tax bill in August 2022 when his 2012 stock options expire.
Musk, 50, doesn’t draw a salary from the electric car company he founded. His fortune comes from stock awards and the gains in Tesla’s share price.