Musk’s payment could be the largest ever for the IRS, a report says
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and the occasional world’s richest man, took to Twitter late Sunday to inform followers that he will be spending more in taxes this year than some countries make an entire year.
“For those wondering, I will pay over $11 billion in taxes this year,” Musk tweeted.
Tesla did not immediately respond to an after-hours email from Fox Business. Bloomberg News reported that he could face a bill of more than $10 billion if he exercises his options due to expire next year. The report said it could be the largest individual payment to the Internal Revenue Service.
Nasdaq recently published a report that listed countries with the projected lowest gross domestic product in 2021. If Musk’s tweet is to be believed, his check will be larger than the GDPs in Burundi, South Sudan, Somalia and just shy of Mozambique’s projected $13.96 billion in 2021.
Musk’s tweet came hours after Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., announced that he could not support President Biden’s Build Back Better social spending bill.
Republicans criticized the bill for what they saw as wasteful spending, while Democrats saw the plan as essential for providing a safety net for the most vulnerable during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last week, Musk lashed out at Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass, after she claimed that he does not pay enough in taxes and is essentially “freeloading off everyone else.”
“Stop projecting,” Musk wrote in response, linking to a 2019 opinion piece from political consultant Bradley Blakeman, which classifies Warren as a “fraud” following her claims of Native American ancestry.
Musk has argued that the fundamental problem is that government spends too much money.
“Eventually,” he tweeted in October, “they run out of other people’s money, and then they come for you.”
