London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Tuesday, Oct 07, 2025

US Lawmakers' Dig At Elon Musk For Bragging About Paying $11 Billion In Taxes

US Lawmakers' Dig At Elon Musk For Bragging About Paying $11 Billion In Taxes

The CEO of Tesla Motors and Space-X, Musk had on December 20 tweeted: "For those wondering, I will pay over $11 billion in taxes this year." The tax bill is considered as one of the highest in US history.

Top US lawmakers, including Indian-American Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, have criticised Elon Musk, the world's wealthiest man and Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk for bragging about paying USD 11 billion in taxes.

In a tweet on Wednesday, Texas Senator Ted Cruz said, "Got it. You don't like @elonmusk Who else do you want to loot?" The Republican Senator's tweet was in response to a post on Twitter by Jayapal, a Democrat, taking a dig at Musk for showing off his tax bill.


"Elon Musk made $36 BILLION in one day, but wants to brag about paying an $11 billion tax bill," she said in a tweet.

"Oh yeah, he also added more than $270 BILLION in wealth just since the pandemic started," she said, adding that it was time for the rich to pay their fair share.

The CEO of Tesla Motors and Space-X, Musk had on December 20 tweeted: "For those wondering, I will pay over $11 billion in taxes this year." The tax bill is considered as one of the highest in US history.

Earlier, Democratic Party Senator Elizabeth Warren, referring to Musk, had tweeted, "Let's change the rigged tax code so The Person of the Year will actually pay taxes and stop freeloading off everyone else." This led to an ugly spat between the two with Musk replying, "And if you opened your eyes for 2 seconds, you would realise I will pay more taxes than any American in history this year." Musk has sold off USD 14 billion worth of Tesla stock since early November, after asking his followers in a Twitter poll if he should sell 10% of his holdings. In the poll, his followers said he should pay.

But it's likely Musk would have begun selling anyway. That's because he faces a massive tax bill on Tesla stock options, according to an earlier CNBC report.

Musk's wealth comes from stock awards and gains in Tesla's share price.

Though Tesla shares have taken a tumble since Musk's Twitter poll, they remain incredibly valuable - the stock is up 28 per cent year-to-date, the report said.

He could have waited until next year to pay the tax bill, but that would have meant potentially getting hit by higher tax rates under the Democrats' Build Back Better bill, it said.

The report quoted a ProPublica investigation showing that Musk and several other billionaires paid no federal income taxes in 2018.

Between 2014 and 2018, Musk paid USD 455 million in taxes on USD 1.52 billion of income, despite his wealth growing by $13.9 billion over that period, it said.

Musk was granted the share options in 2012 as part of his pay package, and the options vested as Tesla hit various financial and operational targets in subsequent years. But he did not have to pay taxes on the options until he exercised them, which he started to do in November, a CNN report said on Wednesday.

With a top tax rate of 40.8 per cent, Musk, the richest person in the world with a net worth of USD 280 billion, faces a federal tax bill of about USD 10.7 billion from the exercise of these shares, the report said.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×