Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont is renewing requires larger taxes on the rich, tweeting on Saturday that “We must demand that the extremely wealthy pay their fair share. Period.”
On Sunday, Elon Musk — the world’s richest individual — fired again: “I keep forgetting that you’re still alive.”
Musk, whose wealth is tied up in shares of Tesla, added, “Want me to sell more stock, Bernie? Just say the word …”
Shares of Tesla fell 2.1% to $1,012 in early buying and selling on Monday.
The snarky responses from Musk come amid an ongoing debate over tax charges and the hovering wealth of the nation’s richest residents. Democrats had thought-about a brand new tax on billionaires that would assist fund President Joe Biden’s proposed $3.2 trillion social spending bundle, which has since been pared down to $1.75 billion. Though it is thought-about unlikely that the billionaires tax would transfer ahead, it could solely affect about 700 individuals, together with Elon Musk.
The collective web price of America’s billionaires has surged by $2 trillion throughout the pandemic, bolstered by a surge in inventory costs and different belongings, according to People for Tax Equity, a left-leaning advocacy group. The belongings of the backside 20% of households has grown by simply 1% throughout the well being disaster, according to a brand new evaluation from Oxford Economics.
Musk inventory sale
Musk just lately offered greater than $5 billion price of Tesla inventory, amounting to about 3% of his stake in the firm. About $1.1 billion will go towards paying tax obligations for inventory choices granted to the entrepreneur in September. After the transactions, Musk still owns about 167 million Tesla shares.
Earlier this month, Musk briefly turned the first individual on the planet to be price greater than $300 billion, thanks to a surge in Tesla’s inventory value. The shares have since declined from that peak, partly on information of Musk’s inventory gross sales.
At that valuation, Musk’s wealth was higher than the annual GDP of countries equivalent to Finland, Chile and Vietnam, and likewise exceeded the market worth of Netflix and PayPal, an organization he co-founded.
Below the Democrats’ billionaires tax plan, Musk could be responsible for maybe a one-time $50 billion tax hit underneath the Democratic proposal. He voiced his displeasure with the proposed tax final month, noting that he had different plans for his cash.
“My plan,” the SpaceX founder tweeted in October about his fortune, “is to use the money to get humanity to Mars and preserve the light of consciousness.”
