Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Elon Musk got into a spat with social democrat Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Sunday after the U.S. senator demanded the “extremely wealthy” pay their ”fair share” of taxes.
The billionaire CEO who had already offloaded a combined $6.9 billion worth of shares in the electric car company as of Nov. 12, further wrote, “Want me to sell more stock, Bernie? Just say the word.”
Sanders’ tweet comes amid the backdrop of the progressive left’s efforts to hike taxes for the super-wealthy.
U.S. Senate Democrats have unveiled a proposal to tax billionaires’ stocks and other tradeable assets to help finance President Joe Biden’s social spending agenda and close a loophole that has allowed them to defer capital gains taxes indefinitely.
A week ago, Musk tweeted that he would sell 10 percent of his shares if users of the social media platform endorsed the move.
“Much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance, so I propose selling 10% of my Tesla stock. Do you support this? I will abide by the results of this poll, whichever way it goes,” the poll read.
About 57.9 percent of people voted for the stock sale, which saw Musk go ahead with the sale.
