57.9 percent vote 'yes'; Twitter wants Elon Musk to sell 10 percent of his Tesla stock

The majority of those who voted on Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk's Twitter poll think he should sell ten per cent of his company's stock.

For the uninitiated, Musk recently got into a heated Twitter exchange with UN World Food Programme (WFP) chief David Beasley following a suggestion by the WFP, that billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk could donate a portion of their wealth to help end world hunger.

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During the days-long spat, the two exchanged some fiery tweets. Finally, the world's richest person on Saturday took to Twitter to survey his 62.6 million followers about whether he should sell ten per cent of his stock in the electric car company.

The public has spoken. There was 57.9 per cent support for the billionaire selling part of his stock. More than 3.5 million people voted in the poll.

"I was prepared to accept either outcome," Musk said, after the voting ended.

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According to Reuters calculations, Musk holds 170.5 million Tesla shares as of June 30, and selling 10 per cent would be worth close to $21 billion based on Friday's closing price.

"Much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance, so I propose selling 10% of my Tesla stock," Musk said on Saturday, adding that he does not take cash salary or bonus "from anywhere", and only has stock.

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The US Senate Democrats are planning to tax billionaires' stocks and other tradeable assets to help finance President Joe Biden's social spending agenda. The goal is to close a loophole that has allowed them (billionaires) to defer capital gains taxes indefinitely.

Musk has criticized the proposal, saying, "Eventually, they run out of other people’s money and then they come for you."

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Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, who floated the tax proposal, tweeted on Saturday: "Whether or not the world’s wealthiest man pays any taxes at all shouldn’t depend on the results of a Twitter poll. It’s time for the Billionaires Income Tax."

Musk owns 23 per cent of Tesla, which is the world's most valuable automobile company, and whose market value is now over $1 trillion. Among his other valuable businesses is SpaceX.