Elon Musk is now the first person to cross the $300billion mark in net worth. His fortune grew by $10billion in one day due to a Tesla share surge. This was just a day after Microsoft regained its title as the world’s most valuable corporation.
According to the Bloomberg billionaires’ Index, Musk’s net worth reached $302billion on Thursday.
The $10 billion increase was due to a surge in Tesla shares on Thursday after the electric car company inked a huge deal to lease 100,000 vehicles to Hertz.
The mogul now has a net worth of over $100billion, more than Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon. His fortune is $199billion.
After a slump in Apple shares, which saw the overall value of the iPhone maker fall by around four percent to $2.41 trillion, Microsoft was back on top as the world’s most valuable corporation with a market cap of $2.46 trillion.
Apple suffered a drop of just four percent following lower fourth-quarter revenues. Microsoft rose 1.1% to surpass Apple after posting higher than expected revenue estimates in the 11th quarter.
Elon Musk is the first person to surpass the $300billion mark in net worth
Musk is now worth $100billion more that Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder.
Microsoft, whose chairman Bill Gates can be seen, has now overtaken Apple to become world’s most valuable company with $2.46 trillion
For the first time since early 2020, Microsoft is now worth more than Apple. The company is on track for its largest weekly gains since January.
Musk is now worth more that the annual GDP in countries like Egypt and Portugal, Greece, Qatar, Qatar, and Finland.
He is also worth more than the value of PayPal, which he co-founded, and streaming giant Netflix.
Musk’s value is even greater than the Forbes combined valuations of the Dallas Cowboys and New York Yankees, New York Knicks as well as the top-level soccer clubs Barcelona and Real Madrid ($25.4billion).
Experts have predicted that Musk will become the world’s first trillionaire. However, they believe the fortune will come from Musk’s SpaceX venture and not Tesla.
Musk has criticised President Joe Biden’s proposal to tax billionaires’ income in order to pay for his proposed spending bill. Musk, the Tesla CEO, saw his company’s valuation reach $1trillion and his personal wealth rise by a single day record of $36billion.
Musk took to Twitter Monday to respond to a tweet criticizing the Democrats’ idea of a new tax on billionaires to help pay for Biden’s social services and climate-change plan.
The world’s richest man foresaw that Democrats’ plan of taxing the wealthy would eventually expand to include new levies against the middle class.
Musk tweeted that “Eventually, other people’s money runs out and then they come for your money.”
It was revealed that Musk, unlike his rival Jeff Bezos in recent years, has paid no federal income tax.
The framework for the domestic package that Biden released Thursday does not include the tax.
The plan would see the annual valuation of Tesla Stock and other tradable assets. Musk would be subject to a tax if those assets increase in value, even though they haven’t sold it.
Current laws only allow a gain to be taxed if it’s’realized’ by its owner when the asset is sold and made a profit.
However, the future for the billionaires tax is uncertain because it wasn’t included within President Joe Biden’s framework for the domestic package released Thursday. Even so, the agreement reached among Congressional Democrats was not final.
It’s not surprising that Musk and other billionaires have voiced their dissatisfaction with the tax proposal.
It was revealed earlier this year that Musk and Jeff Bezos have not paid federal income tax in recent years.
Musk’s wealth increased by $13.9 billion between 2014 and 2018, according to estimates.
He earned $1.52billion and paid $455million in tax. This is equivalent to a 3.27% true tax rate.
Musk didn’t pay federal income taxes in 2018, According to records, he paid $68,000 in 2015, and $65,000 in 2017.
The Senate Finance Committee Democrats, led by Senator Ron Wyden from Oregon, are ready to roll out the tax revenue program in a matter days.
Wyden’s plan to tax billionaires would only affect the richest Americans, less than 1,000.
Elon Musk (left) has slammed President Joe Biden’s (right) plan to tax billionaires’ income to pay for his proposed spending bill
The world’s richest man predicted that the Democrats’ plan to tax the wealthy will eventually expand to include new levies on middle class Americans. ‘Eventually, they run out of other people’s money and then they come for you,’ Musk tweeted
Musk was responding to Rick McCracken’s post, which warned against the capital gains tax proposal
Musk’s net worth increased by more $36billion on Monday, after shares of Tesla, his company, soared nearly 13 percent
It would require people with assets greater than $1billion or three years of consecutive income exceeding $100million to pay taxes on stock and other tradeable gains, rather than waiting for holdings to be sold.
As it stands now, billionaires spend a lot of their money on assets like stocks. These assets are only taxed when the are sold.
The new plan would levy annual taxes upon those assets that are still owned by their owners.
Wealthy people often use these assets that are not currently taxed as collateral to get loans. This allows them lower taxes.
Similar billionaires would apply a similar tax to non-tradeable assets such as real estate, but it would not be assessed until the asset was sold.
Although the billionaire’s tax rate is not known, it is expected to be at the least the 20 percent capital gains rate.
Democrats have claimed that it could raise $200 billion in revenue to fund Biden’s package over 10 year.
Rick McCracken posted a tweet in which he warned against Wyden’s capital gains tax proposal.
He provided a template of a letter for citizens to use to send to Congress to voice their opposition to the proposal.
‘I expect you to oppose the Wyden proposal to tax unrealized capital gains,’ the letter read.
The deal is estimated to be worth $4.2B as each vehicle is worth approximately $40,000
‘Although the proposal targets billionaires and not myself, the government of elected representatives have a track record of scope creep when writing new taxes.’
McCracken predicted that after Democrats tax the ultra-wealthy, ‘any new unrealized capital gains taxes will slowly make their way down to middle class retirement investments over the next several years.’
‘It will start with billionaires, then eventually millionaires, then the modest investments will get hit possibly within a decade,’ McCracken continued.
‘Although principle residences and holdings in 401K plans apparently will be excluded, the Wyden proposal takes new tax hikes a step closer to imposing unrealized capital gains tax on the average investor.’
Musk agreed with McCracken’s post, tweeting: ‘Exactly. Eventually, they run out of other people’s money and then they come for you.’
Musk celebrated Monday, despite the fact that he was concerned about having to pay more taxes.
Hertz announced Monday that it will purchase 100,000 electric cars from Tesla. This is the largest ever purchase of battery-powered cars and the latest evidence of the nation’s growing commitment to EV technology.
The news of the deal triggered an increase in Tesla’s stock price, pushing the carmaker’s market capitalization to $1trillion for the first-time.
One of the most respected rental car companies in the world has purchased an electric vehicle to show its belief that electric vehicles are becoming more popular than vehicles powered by internal combustion engines.
Tesla shares surged by almost 13 percent on Wall Street, adding $36billion to Musk’s personal net worth.
Bloomberg estimates that Musk’s fortune has been valued at $289billion as of Tuesday morning. He is close to $100billion more wealthy than Jeff Bezos (Amazon founder).
Bezos’s market capitalization was just $192.6 billion at the close of trading Monday.
Tax experts fear that the new plan could complicate the already complex American tax system. It also wouldn’t be sufficient to offset Biden’s $2 trillion ‘human Infrastructure’ bill because it will only affect a small number of people.
Others are concerned that centrist Democrats might reject the tax increase.
Richard E. Neal from Massachusetts, a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, said that the Wyden Plan could ‘become really complicated’.
‘When you do rates, they’re efficient and they’re easily implemented. Rates are simple by design, unlike the more complicated ideas of taxing this or that. They are easy to understand,’ Neal stated.
The proposal would tax billionaires’ stocks or bonds that are not yet realized every year. Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index identifies the richest people worldwide.
‘There’s only one proposal on revenue that has passed a legislative body. It’s ours.’
Joshua McCabe, a senior fellow for policy and welfare at the center-right Niskanen Center, says there’s just not enough billionaires for the plan to raise that much money.
McCabe stated to the Post that countries with a stronger welfare state tax everyone a bit more than the rich.
‘The amount of revenue you can get from squeezing folks making more than $400,000 per year is small, and if you’re looking at billionaires it’s even smaller.’
California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna said that the hike is insufficient, but he acknowledged that it will severely impact his district, which also includes Silicon Valley.
He said that the minimum tax would need to be combined with the current zero percent tax, which is what the president talked about. Fox News’ Chris Wallace told him that approximately 50 corporations pay zero percent in taxes. They would then have to pay at most 7 percent tax.
“So Amazon would have 7 percent. If you had both and you increased the revenue, I would vote in favor.
Senator Mitt Romney, from Utah, is one of the wealthiest members of Congress, with an estimated $271m fortune. He called it a “very bad idea,” according to the New York Times. He said that the rich would stop buying stocks and invest their money in diamonds and paintings.
Senator Republican Leader Mitch McConnell called it “hare-brained” and warned about revenue drying up in downturns.
Some Republicans suggested that such tax plans could be challenged in the courts.
The plan is part an overall strategy to raise taxes on wealthy people above the preference for centrist Democrats like Krysten Silena of Arizona or Joe Manchin III from West Virginia, who are opposed to wider measures.
| Warren Buffett | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year | Total taxes paid | Total income reported |
| 2014 | $7.93 million | $46.8 millions |
| 2015 | $1.85million | $11.6 Million |
| 2016 | $3.82 Million | $19.6 Million |
| 2017 | $4.75 million | $22 Million |
| 2018 | $5.36 million | $24.8 million |
| Jeff Bezos | ||
| Year | Total taxes paid | Total income reported |
| 2014 | $85.4 Million | $367 Million |
| 2015 | $126 million | $542 million |
| 2016 | $320 Million | $1.35 trillion |
| 2017 | $398 million | $1.68 Billion |
| 2018 | $43.5 Million | $284 million |
| Elon Musk | ||
| Year | Total taxes paid | Total income reported |
| 2014 | $30.4 Million | $165 million |
| 2015 | $78.5K | $3.15 Million |
| 2016 | $42 million | $1.34 Billion |
| 2017 | $73.7K | $6.22 million |
| 2018 | $8.41K | $3.85 Million |
| Source: IRS DATA OBTAINED DIRECTLY BY PROPUBLICA | ||
Democrats believe it will be difficult for opponents to publicly oppose it.
Sen. Wyden, who wrote the proposal, stated that it clearly connects with some of the most difficult political communities in the country. This makes Build Back Better immensely more popular.
The House’s bill from Ways and Means Committee would increase the top individual income-tax rate from 37 to 39.6 % for those who earn more than $400,000, or $450,000 if they are married.
The corporate rate would rise from 21 percent to 26 percent.
The bill also proposed a 3 per cent surtax on wealthy Americans whose adjusted income exceeds $5million per annum.
Neal, the chairman on the panel, said that he told Wyden during a Monday discussion that the implementation of Senator’s proposed billionaire plan is ‘a bit harder’.
Neal suggested that Sinema’s objections were not valid and that the House’s proposal was not on the table. He said that ‘our plan looks more beautiful every day’.
Senator Mitt Romney is one the wealthiest members of Congress. He called the proposal, which would apply to anyone who has made $100M three years consecutively, a’very bad idea.
Sen. Kyrsten Sienema, a Democrat representing Arizona, was shown above on Thursday to stop the wealth-tax from moving forward. Although she has not yet spoken out about it, she has opposed tax increases in the past.
Once Democrats have agreed to the tax proposals they can determine how much funding is available to support Biden’s overall package for climate change programs, including child care, health care, and child care.
Democrats hoped Biden would highlight major accomplishments to world leaders during this week’s Democrats.
They have until October 31st to pass the $1trillion bipartisan Infrastructure Package of roads, broadband, and other public work before routine federal transportation funds expire.
Biden stated that ‘We must get this done’ in remarks made at a New Jersey transit centre.
After months of negotiations, Biden has now agreed to a package worth at least $1.75 trillion.
However, it could still rise substantially higher, according to another person who insisted that the anonymous discussion be kept private.