Elon Musk says he'll pay over US$11b in taxes this year

[SINGAPORE] Elon Musk, the world's richest person and chief executive officer of Tesla, said on Twitter that he'll pay more than US$11 billion in taxes this year, an amount that could constitute a record payment to the US Internal Revenue Service.

The billionaire may face a tax bill of more than US$10 billion for 2021 if he exercises all his options due to expire next year, calculations last week by Bloomberg News showed.

The unusually high levy comes after Musk exercised almost 15 million options and sold millions of shares to cover the taxes related to those transactions. That was following a Twitter poll last month when he asked followers whether he should sell 10 per cent of his stake in the electric carmaker, whose shares have rocketed more than 2,300 per cent over the past 5 years.

A report by ProPublica in June said Musk paid little income tax relative to his outsize wealth. But he's pushed back against that characterisation, saying he doesn't draw a salary from either SpaceX or Tesla, and pays an effective tax rate of 53 per cent on stock options he exercises. He added that he expects that tax rate to increase next year.

Musk earlier this month said he'll pay more taxes than any American in history this year. That was in response to another tweet from Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, who used Musk's Time Magazine "Person of the Year" accolade to call him out on his taxes.

BLOOMBERG