Tesla stock plunged more than 15%, reducing his tax burden
Tesla CEO Elon Musk. (Photo=Reuters=Yonhap News)
Tesla CEO Elon Musk posted a tweet asking if he would sell his stake, saving 450 billion won in income tax.
According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report on the 23rd (local time), as the stock price of the company fell after Musk’s tweet, the tax on the exercise of stock options (stock options) decreased significantly.
The number of stock options Musk exercised from the 8th to the 19th of this month is 6.4 million, and it is estimated that he will owe the federal government $2.7 billion in taxes.
However, the WSJ explained that Musk’s tax burden has been reduced thanks to the Tesla’s share price plummeting by more than 15% in the week after Musk posted a survey on his Twitter account on the 6th of this month asking whether he would sell 10% of his stake. .
Tesla’s stock price rose on the back of positive news such as better-than-expected quarterly results and orders for 100,000 electric vehicles from car rental company Hertz, reaching an all-time high of $1,229.91 on the 4th of this month.
The WSJ estimated that Musk’s actual tax owed would be reduced by $380 million (about 451.8 billion won) compared to the tax based on the highest price.
At Tesla’s highest price, Musk’s tax was $481.51 per share, but as the stock price fell while he exercised his stock options, the tax burden was reduced to $421.59 per share, the Journal reported.
According to Bloomberg News, Musk announced on the same day that he purchased 2.15 million shares by exercising stock options and sold 934,000 shares for 1.05 billion dollars (about 1.24 trillion won).
As a result, the total number of stocks he has sold since posting the survey tweet reached 9.2 million shares, or $9.9 billion (about 11.77 trillion won).
Reporter Eunji Cha, Hankyung.com chachacha@hankyung.com
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