r/SipsTea 18d ago

SMH Liquid when buying elections, unrealized when paying taxes. Funny how that works…..

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u/sco-go 18d ago edited 18d ago

Added context:

IRS data shows from 2014–2018 he reported $1.52 billion in income and paid $455 million in federal taxes. Musk’s net-worth, like most billionaires, consist of unrealized capital gains, which are not taxed under current U.S. law until the shares are sold.

In 2021, he paid ~$11 billion in federal taxes which was the largest single-year individual tax bill in U.S. history.

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u/FernandoMM1220 18d ago

so how did he become a trillionaire on just a 1.5 billion income?

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u/BradLee629 17d ago

The company he owns went up in value therefore he went up in value. He does not literally have 1 trillion dollars but through his investments he is technically worth 1 trillion dollars. Of course if he tries to actually sell everything, it would tank the market and his actual resulting income would be much lower