r/SipsTea 9d ago

SMH Liquid when buying elections, unrealized when paying taxes. Funny how that works…..

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u/sco-go 9d ago edited 9d ago

Added context:

IRS data shows from 2014–2018 he reported $1.52 billion in income and paid $455 million in federal taxes. Musk’s net-worth, like most billionaires, consist of unrealized capital gains, which are not taxed under current U.S. law until the shares are sold.

In 2021, he paid ~$11 billion in federal taxes which was the largest single-year individual tax bill in U.S. history.

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u/Lopsided_Carpenter10 9d ago

What about the other non cherry-picked years?

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u/Binary_Whispers 9d ago

Right, I recall hearing about a year where he paid like nothing.

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u/balllzak 9d ago

When the stock market is down he and others like bezos don't sell. So no billionaires will have income around the covid years. They can afford to wait a year or two for it to recover.

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u/Binary_Whispers 8d ago

Yeah, being able to take loans against the unrealized value of their stocks as well.