Twitter has spoken, and the financial markets are startled: Elon Musk asked his 63 million followers on the online platform over the weekend whether, in view of a debate about tax avoidance among the super-rich, he would part with 10 percent of his shares in the electric car manufacturer Tesla and buy an associated tax payment should take.

More than 3.5 million users voted, and 58 percent were in favor of a sale.

The Tesla CEO has said he will follow the Twitter vote, and the prospect of it caused unrest in the stock market on Monday.

The Tesla share price was at times almost five percent in the red.

Roland Lindner

Business correspondent in New York.

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Winand von Petersdorff-Campen

Business correspondent in Washington.

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The high-profile vote on Twitter came amid increasing criticism of the tax practices of multibillionaires like Musk and moves in the US Congress to tax this group more heavily. This includes a bill that would tax capital gains on investments in stocks, even if those stocks are not sold. With the survey, Musk signaled a willingness to pay taxes, but he also admitted that taxes are optional for him because of the way his own pay is structured. As he tweeted himself, he does not get a regular salary or bonuses, only blocks of shares. "So selling stocks is the only way for me to pay taxes."

Whether Musk is actually guided in his calculation by the will of the Twitter community or by the current tax discussion is questionable.

Already at a conference in September he spoke of an imminent sale of shares and a related “massive” tax payment, but the reason for this was that part of his stock options were due.

If he exercises these options, it would happen at a fraction of the current Tesla share price and entail high taxes, which he would then sell shares to pay.

Almost $ 28 billion in value

According to calculations by the business broadcaster CNBC, this is about huge sums of money. The soon-to-be-due package of 22.8 million options dates back to 2012 and has an exercise price of $ 6.24. Based on Friday's $ 1,222 share price, Musk's taxable appreciation would be nearly $ 28 billion. He would then have to pay a total of around 15 billion dollars in taxes at the federal level and in California. Musk has received additional packages of stock options from Tesla over the past few years. On the Bloomberg Billionaires Index he is currently listed as by far the richest person in the world with a fortune of 338 billion dollars.

The proposal to tax billionaires like Musk more heavily by taking into account unrealized gains came from Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, who heads the Congress Chamber's finance committee. His plan targets the approximately 700 citizens who either have a fortune of at least one billion dollars or have had incomes of more than 100 million dollars for three consecutive years.

Experts from the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation have determined that Wyden's plan would generate $ 557 billion in tax revenue within ten years.

The Senator wanted to use the money to secure the financing of the legislative package with which the Biden government wants to implement its social and climate policy agenda.

The contested bill was last worth $ 1.85 trillion.

Wyden's tax plan was removed from the latest draft of the legislative package.

Democratic MPs from both houses of Congress opposed it.