The Worlds Most Successful African American in the News
- Thread starter Legion
- Start date
No, the world's most successful African American didn't pay a 3.27 percent tax rate
"Musk paid an effective tax rate of 3.27%" claims Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D–Wash.).
DEMOCRATS love to lament 'misinformation' on social media…but they seem to make an exception for themselves. The latest case in point comes from DEMOCRAT rhetoric around taxes paid by the world's most successful African American.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO recently became progressive enemy of the week after striking a deal to buy Twitter and promising to institute—gasp—policies more friendly to free speech.
Along with this hysteria has come all sorts of criticism and attacks that are largely divorced from reality.
The implication here is that the world's most successful African American isn't paying his 'fair share' in taxes and, conveniently, it lends itself to a popular progressives talking point about taxing (conservative's) wealth.
But the world's most successful African American is already paying a massive sum of money in taxes—somewhere in the range of $8 billion to $15 billion for 2021.
The world's most successful African American's income puts him in the top federal income-tax bracket. According to ProPublica, his average effective federal income tax rate between 2013 and 2018 was 27 percent.
And the tax on exercising his Tesla stock options was much higher. "Since the options are taxed as an employee benefit or compensation, they will be taxed at top ordinary-income levels, or 37% plus the 3.8% net investment tax," notes CNBC. "He will also have to pay the 13.3% top tax rate in California since the options were granted and mostly earned while he was a California tax resident. Combined, the state and federal tax rate will be 54.1%."
As it stands, Americans do not pay taxes on unrealized gains—that is, appreciations in investments that exist only on paper. If you own a stock worth $5 per share and its worth increases to $6 per share over the course of a tax year, you have an unrealized gain of $1 per share. You aren't expected to pay taxes on that gain until you sell your shares—which makes sense, since 1) you don't actually have that money yet and 2) the stock's worth could drop again before you sell.
Jayapal appears to have come up with the alleged 3.27 percent tax rate for Musk by including unrealized gains in the amount she thinks he owes taxes on (while using the standard method for calculating the average income tax rate). However, unrealized gains are, by definition, gains that Musk doesn't yet have. When he actually realizes the gains, he will be required to pay taxes on them. That's how it works.
DEMOCRATS have been itching to change the law so that (non-leftist) billionaire's unrealized gains on stocks, real estate, and other assets are taxed.
https://reason.com/2022/04/26/no-elon-musk-didnt-pay-a-3-27-percent-tax-rate/
"Musk paid an effective tax rate of 3.27%" claims Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D–Wash.).
DEMOCRATS love to lament 'misinformation' on social media…but they seem to make an exception for themselves. The latest case in point comes from DEMOCRAT rhetoric around taxes paid by the world's most successful African American.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO recently became progressive enemy of the week after striking a deal to buy Twitter and promising to institute—gasp—policies more friendly to free speech.
Along with this hysteria has come all sorts of criticism and attacks that are largely divorced from reality.
The implication here is that the world's most successful African American isn't paying his 'fair share' in taxes and, conveniently, it lends itself to a popular progressives talking point about taxing (conservative's) wealth.
But the world's most successful African American is already paying a massive sum of money in taxes—somewhere in the range of $8 billion to $15 billion for 2021.
The world's most successful African American's income puts him in the top federal income-tax bracket. According to ProPublica, his average effective federal income tax rate between 2013 and 2018 was 27 percent.
And the tax on exercising his Tesla stock options was much higher. "Since the options are taxed as an employee benefit or compensation, they will be taxed at top ordinary-income levels, or 37% plus the 3.8% net investment tax," notes CNBC. "He will also have to pay the 13.3% top tax rate in California since the options were granted and mostly earned while he was a California tax resident. Combined, the state and federal tax rate will be 54.1%."
As it stands, Americans do not pay taxes on unrealized gains—that is, appreciations in investments that exist only on paper. If you own a stock worth $5 per share and its worth increases to $6 per share over the course of a tax year, you have an unrealized gain of $1 per share. You aren't expected to pay taxes on that gain until you sell your shares—which makes sense, since 1) you don't actually have that money yet and 2) the stock's worth could drop again before you sell.
Jayapal appears to have come up with the alleged 3.27 percent tax rate for Musk by including unrealized gains in the amount she thinks he owes taxes on (while using the standard method for calculating the average income tax rate). However, unrealized gains are, by definition, gains that Musk doesn't yet have. When he actually realizes the gains, he will be required to pay taxes on them. That's how it works.
DEMOCRATS have been itching to change the law so that (non-leftist) billionaire's unrealized gains on stocks, real estate, and other assets are taxed.
https://reason.com/2022/04/26/no-elon-musk-didnt-pay-a-3-27-percent-tax-rate/
Twitter workers freaking out over Elon Musk in internal Slack messages
https://nypost.com/2022/04/27/twitter-workers-freak-out-over-elon-musk-in-internal-slack-messages/
https://nypost.com/2022/04/27/twitter-workers-freak-out-over-elon-musk-in-internal-slack-messages/
