World’s richest man Elon Musk will sell 10% of his Tesla stock after the result of a Twitter poll.

Elon Musk tweeted on Saturday that he would offload 10% of his stock if Twitter users approved the proposal via a poll posted on Twitter.

Musk owns about 170.5 million Tesla shares as of June 30. 10% he wants to offload will amount to about %21 billon, The National reported.

“I was prepared to accept either outcome,” Musk tweeted after the voting ended.

The Tesla CEO had previously said he would have to exercise a large number of stock options in the next three months, which would create a big tax bill.

Selling some of his stock could free up funds to pay the taxes.

“Much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance, so I propose selling 10% of my Tesla stock,” Musk tweeted on Saturday, adding that he does not take cash salary or bonus “from anywhere”, and only has stock.

The poll garnered more than 3.5 million votes with 58% of people voting in favour of Elon Musk selling 10% of his stake at Tesla.

Musk’s poll came after a proposal was made at the US congress to tax billionaires’ assets to help pay for President Joe Biden’s social and climate-change agenda.

The Tesla CEO, who is currently the world’s richest person and owner of several companies, including SpaceX and Neuralink, had previously criticised the billionaires’ tax on Twitter.

He was, however, countered by an economist who opposed his approach to taxation.

“Looking forward to the day when the richest person in the world paying some tax does not depend on a Twitter poll,” Berkeley economist Gabriel Zucman tweeted.

But Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, who floated the tax proposal, on Saturday said, “Whether or not the world’s wealthiest man pays any taxes at all shouldn’t depend on the results of a Twitter poll.”

“It’s time for the Billionaires Income Tax.”

TodayNG