At a Glance:
- Elon Musk donated 5,044,000 shares of Tesla to a charity.
- The amount equates to $5.74 billion based on the closing prices for Tesla shares.
- The charity ranks Elon Musk the second-biggest donor after Bill Gates & Melinda Gates.
The Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, donated a total of 5,044, 000 shares to a charity from Nov 19 to Nov 29 in 2021, which was shown in the filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
This donation accounted for $5.74 billion, based on the closing prices of Tesla shares on the five days and Musk donated the stock. However, the documents did not disclose the name of the charity.
Musk sold $16.4 billion worth of shares after polling Twitter users about offloading 10% of his stake in the electric-car maker in early November. He stated on Twitter that he will pay more than $11 billion in taxes in 2021 due to his exercise of stock options set to expire this year.
Tesla might benefit from the donation
The analysts have predicted that this donation might result in tax benefits for the tech billionaire as the Tesla shares donated are not subject to capital gains tax. One of the associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, Bob Lord commented, “He’d save between 40% and 50% of the $5.7 billion in tax, depending on whether he could take the deduction against his California income and he’d avoid the gains tax he would have to pay if he sold the stock.”
Bob Lord added that Musk may have contributed the stock to intermediaries like “donor advised funds,” and not outright to charitable groups. There was no immediate comment from Tesla.
Elon Musk second-biggest in philanthropy
Bill Gates and Melinda Gates have always been popular for their philantrophic endeavors. However, with the recent donation, Elon Musk now ranks as the second biggest donor among the billionaires.
Not just Gates or Musk, several other billionaires have made public philanthropy gestures. Alike Musk, Jeff Bezos, the founder of retail giant Amazon, has donated less than 1% of their net worth, while Warren Buffett and George Soros account for more than 20% by early September.
