Electric vehicle company Tesla’s shares have fallen by 4.9 per cent after Twitter users voted in favour of CEO Elon Musk selling 10 per cent of his stake in the carmaker in order to pay taxes.
Musk polled his Twitter followers on whether he should sell the shares, and while 57.9 per cent of more than 3.5 million participants had voted “yes,” 42.1 per cent voted “no”.
The result could see him dispose of nearly $21 billion of stock, the BBC reported.
Musk held the poll over the weekend in response to a “billionaires tax” proposed by US Democrats. He pledged that he would abide by the results of the poll, “whichever way it goes”.
The Democrats had proposed plans to target billionaires by taxing their assets, such as shares.
As of 30 June, Musk’s shareholding in Tesla came to about 170.5 million shares and selling 10 per cent would amount to close to $21 billion based on Friday’s closing prices.
The CEO, who currently owns a 23 per cent stake in Tesla, has yet to comment publicly on the Twitter poll result.
Musk said on Twitter he takes no salary or bonuses from any of his companies, meaning he has no earnings on which to pay income tax, the report said.
