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Tesla shares fall after Elon Musk's 'soap opera' Twitter poll
More than 3 million of billionaire's followers vote that he should sell 10 percent of his stock in electric car firm.
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It was well known that Musk had a big tax bill coming due from his 23 million stock options awarded in 2012," wrote Dan Ives, an analyst for Wedbush Securities, who estimates the bill at "north of $10 billion."
He added the episode "is another bizarre soap opera that can only happen to one company and one CEO in the world, Musk."
According to CNBC's calculations, the bill could even exceed $15 billion if income tax, a federal surtax on financial income, and capital gains tax in California -- where Musk was a tax resident until the end of 2020 -- are taken into account.
The executive has also used his Tesla shares as collateral to obtain bank loans to finance some of his investments, thus a share sell-off could allow him to repay part of those debts.
Musk, whose fortune is estimated at more than $310 billion by Forbes, did not say when he might be selling any shares but confirmed a sale is his only way to settle his tab with US authorities.
"Note, I do not take a cash salary or bonus from anywhere. I only have stock, thus the only way for me to pay taxes personally is to sell stock," he tweeted.