(BFM Bourse) - With a single gesture, the founder of Tesla sends a stone in the garden of the Democrats who wish to tighten the taxation on the shares for the more affluent, obtains a form of guarantee to proceed to a sale of securities (of anyway), and thumbs his nose at his usual critics. Decryption of a master-trolling.
Once again, Elon Musk demonstrates how much he has mastered the use of social networks to promote his ideas and projects, while serving his interests in the process. On Saturday, the founder of Tesla put to the vote of his 62.5 million Twitter followers the plan to sell 10% of his stake in the automobile group - or about 17 million shares, a block weighing more than 20 billion dollars at the last closing price.
More than 3.5 million of them responded to the leader's survey, and a clear majority (57%) appeared in favor of the sale. All that remains for Elon Musk and his advisers is to define the practical modalities of such an operation, which, moreover, is not of size to permanently destabilize the share market. The volume of securities in question ultimately represents only about 1.8% of the total number of Tesla shares, which is slightly less than the usual amount that is traded in a regular session (stagger sales over a few sessions would therefore suffice to limit the imbalance in the order book).
The appeal to a community that he knows by definition rather won over to his cause allows Elon Musk to kill several birds with one stone. First of all, it allows it to take the initiative in the face of the growing debate on the advisability of taxing the unrealized capital gains of the "super rich" in the United States. As long as a billionaire does not sell shares, he is not taxable on the increase in the value of the securities he holds, but many take advantage of the increase in their wealth to fuel their lifestyle (by borrowing with banks sums pledged on their securities; as long as the price rises, this mechanism works indefinitely). On the left, some therefore consider that unrealized capital gains should be taxed, because they allow holders to generate significant income.
A course to the highest
“We have been doing a lot lately around unrealized capital gains which would constitute a means of avoiding tax, so I propose to sell 10% of my holding in Tesla. Do you support that?” Elon Musk asked in a tweet. . In other words, if the unrealized capital gains come to be taxed, you will see an increase in the sale of securities: the risk is then to see the market fall and affect various stakeholders (knowing that American households are much more exposed). to actions than in Europe).
History to make it clear that his initiative is linked to the current reflections of the Biden administration, Elon Musk slipped an allusion to the current President: "I will abide by the results of this poll, whichever way it goes" and "* abide (n) "[I will abide by the poll result, whatever it is, with a pun on Abide / Biden].
But while giving his plan to sell 10% of his shares the appearance of a quasi-political manifesto, Elon Musk justifies by this survey an operation which was in any case practically inevitable, at a particularly advantageous level since the price has climbed more than 73% since the beginning of the year, reaching a new record at the end of last week.
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$ 15 billion in future taxes
As he himself admits, Elon Musk receives no salary or cash bonus from Tesla, and the only way he can meet his tax obligations is to sell securities. However, he will soon have to pay a significant tax on the capital gain realized within the framework of stock options which were allocated to him in 2012. This plan allows him to acquire, by next August, 22.8 million. Tesla shares at a price of only $ 6.24 per share, generating a colossal immediate capital gain (the share was worth $ 1,222 on Friday, with taxes applying upon exercise of options, whether the shares obtained are not sold immediately).
Unless completely renouncing these shares by letting the options expire, he will therefore be taxed at 54.1% of the capital gain between the market price and the exercise price, calculates CNBC, i.e. at the current price a total of 15 billion dollars to pay into the US Treasury.
A few weeks ago, Elon Musk had explicitly mentioned the imminent expiry of a "large package of options" that he would have to exercise under penalty of expiration.
"Elon Musk proves once again that he is an excellent communicator by putting to the vote the sale of 10% of his shares in Tesla to" pay more taxes ". An obvious opportunity for him to materialize a part of his profits" , observes Benjamin Sacchet, associate director of Avant-Garde Investment, a French wealth manager. "The vote being positive, the financial community will probably be reassured by telling themselves that the majority approved this sale and that the market should not over-sanction this announcement as it would probably have been the case without this approach." In fact, a few hours before the opening of Wall Street, Tesla shares only posted a decline of around 5% in non-market trading, a discount of banal magnitude against the prospect of a reclassification of a block of this size.
Finally, the founder of Tesla and Space-X offers himself the pleasure of once again seeing his opponents enraged: short sellers, politicians too lukewarm for his taste, tech counterparts less cheeky than him, and pontificating academics.
"Elon Musk is just a Twitter troll, who also happens to be the richest person in the world," chokes economist Robert Reich, professor at Berkeley, who was Secretary of Labor under Clinton. "Tax the rich," he concludes, while Elon Musk strives to preempt this slogan.
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