Elon Musk makes £4.2bn in charitable donations in 2021 amid Tesla uncertainty
Eccentric entrepreneur Elon Musk donated $5.7bn (£4.2bn) worth of Tesla shares last year, making him the second-biggest philanthropic of the year according to a new security filing.
According to this document, the Tesla boss donated 5,044,000 shares to an unnamed charity.
If this filing is correct, this puts the South African-born businessman just behind Bill and Melinda French Gates, who donated an estimated $15bn (£11bn).
Musk was notably named Time magazine’s 2021 “Person of the Year” last year, and has an estimated worth of $297bn (£224bn).
It comes alongside Musk also paying more than $11bn (£8bn) in taxes in 2021 after heavy criticism of potential tax-dodging, as well as his infamous Twitter poll, which saw the billionaire offer to sell his Tesla stock if the United Nations could show him how $6bn (£4bn) could solve world hunger.
Whilst the hefty donation seems charitable, analysts have previously pointed out the clear a tax benefit for Musk when he flirted with gifting Tesla stock; shares donated to charity are not subject to capital gains tax, as they would be if sold.
“His tax benefit would be huge,” Bob Lord, an associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies who studies tax policy, told Reuters.
“He’d save between 40 per cent and 50 per cent 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.”
Tesla has also been under fire for software errors in recent weeks, forcing the firm to recall 26,000 cars.
Musk also faces a fresh legal challenge from the US stock market watchdog for his 2018 tweet, regarding taking Tesla private, which sent its share price soaring.