Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s Twitter battle with Bernie Sanders on tax coverage

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk sparred with Senator Bernie Sanders over tax coverage this weekend on Twitter, and tried to impress him once more on Monday morning.

In keeping with his web site, the unbiased Senator (who usually caucuses with Democrats) is a proponent of transitioning the U.S. power system to renewables, offering $200 billion to a Inexperienced Local weather Fund, and different environment-oriented insurance policies that might serve Tesla effectively.

However he’s additionally a proponent of climbing taxes for the super-rich, as is Oregon Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, who Musk needled on Twitter in an analogous trade earlier in November. Musk, who has the best internet value on the earth at present, is staunchly towards a so-called “billionaire’s revenue tax.”

Final week, Musk bought about $6.9 billion value of inventory. (As of Monday morning, Musk nonetheless holds greater than 166 million shares within the firm.) In latest weeks, gross sales from Musk and different insiders have put stress on Tesla shares. Final week, Tesla inventory declined 15.4%, marking the corporate’s worst one-week efficiency in 20 months, and its worst week ever excluding declines within the first quarter of 2020 because the coronavirus pandemic despatched markets tumbling. Tesla closed down one other 1.94% on Monday.

As his sell-off continues, Musk will face a doubtlessly huge tax invoice. Nonetheless, as ProPublica reported, Musk beforehand paid a 3.27% true tax price, or $455 million, on wealth development of $13.9 billion. Musk, who had an precise taxable revenue of $1.52 billion through the five-year interval, paid no federal revenue taxes in 2018, in line with ProPublica.

On Twitter, Sanders has amassed a following of greater than 15 million, and Musk has amassed a following of 63.8 million.

On Saturday, the 80-year-old Vermont senator wrote in a tweet, “We should demand that the extraordinarily rich pay their justifiable share. Interval.”

Musk replied the subsequent day with, “I hold forgetting that you simply’re nonetheless alive.” Musk additionally requested Sanders on Sunday, “Need me to promote extra inventory, Bernie? Simply say the phrase.” Then, the CEO berated the senator saying, “Bernie is a taker, not a maker.”

Musk tried to interact Sanders as soon as once more on Monday.

He requested, “Okay, how a lot do you assume is truthful? Does 53% appear cheap?”

When Sanders didn’t reply to him, a Musk fan remarked that the senator would not reply to followers on Twitter usually. Musk requested, “How do we all know he hasn’t been kidnapped by aliens!?” Musk continued to carry forth on Twitter, discussing his tax coverage preferences with followers and followers together with promoters of bitcoin and Tesla.

In his tweet exchanges, Musk revealed that he would help an property tax, and taxes on what he referred to as extravagant consumption.

The CEO additionally stated he at present owns round 20% of Tesla’s inventory.

Sen. Sanders and Tesla didn’t instantly reply to requests for feedback.

In 2020, Musk put his California mansions available on the market whereas he was sparring with state well being regulators over Covid-19 restrictions that impacted the Tesla manufacturing unit in Fremont. He then moved to Austin, Texas, close to the location of a brand new Tesla manufacturing unit that is beneath building.

This yr, Tesla moved its headquarters from Palo Alto, California, to Austin, Texas, as effectively.

Transferring from California, with the best state revenue tax within the nation, to Texas, which has no state revenue tax, might save Musk billions of {dollars} primarily based on his compensation package deal awarded in 2018.