Tesla stock had a bumpy ride in pre-market trading Monday morning, falling by as much as 7% before recovering to around 5% down, after Elon Musk held a twitter poll on Saturday to decide whether to sell 10% of his shares in the electric car company.
“Much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance, so I propose selling 10% of my Tesla stock,” said the tweet from the billionaire’s Lorde Edge twitter account. “Do you support this?”
Musk noted that since he does not take salary or cash bonus from any of his companies selling stock is the only way he can pay taxes personally. By the end of the poll 3.5 million people had voted with 58% supporting the sale. The stock is worth approximately $21 billion.
Proposals have been made by Democrats in the US congress to tax capital gains on the value of stocks and shares held by billionaires. Currently however unrealized gains are exempt from taxation, leading to Musk’s social media statement.
Stocks overall were up Monday morning , as the three main US main US averages extended record levels into November. Capital gains have been impressive in 2021 with the Standard & Poor’s 500 rising approximately 33% over the course of the year.
Tesla’s stock was trending toward recovery in opening trading at the NYSE after a dip at beginning of trading.
