Elon Musk’s salary

[Wictorian]

Elon says he isn’t paid. However he also says he is the chief engineer so should he be paid? Is this a choice like Donald Trump chose not to be paid?

[Arika]

Given his position in his companies, it would be a personal choice. It's not like someone is going to tell him "fuck you We're,re not giving you anything, you work for nothing".

 

When you have as much money as he does he probably feels like he doesn't need to get paid. At least not in the traditional sense of a salary.

[Skiiwee29]

Pretty sure his salary/compensation comes from stock performance, not directly from the company. This is a better way to do it IMO as it gives more incentive to push for growth and innovation, opposed to stagnating and being happy to take a X million /yr salary. 

[Wictorian]

1 minute ago, Skiiwee29 said:

Pretty sure his salary/compensation comes from stock performance, not directly from the company. This is a better way to do it IMO as it gives more incentive to push for growth and innovation, opposed to stagnating and being happy to take a X million /yr salary. 

And I think it is about tax.

[suedseefrucht]

51 minutes ago, Wictorian said:

Elon says he isn’t paid.

He is paid. Not in USD, but in shares.

[Wictorian]

19 minutes ago, suedseefrucht said:

He is paid. Not in USD, but in shares.

Yeah that is what I meant.

[Imbadatnames]

4 hours ago, suedseefrucht said:

He is paid. Not in USD, but in shares.

Which is why he’s getting flustered over the tax changes

[tkitch]

yeah it's CNN but they have hard numbers about what Musk gets with stock options.

 

https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/14/business/elon-musk-pay/index.html

 

Basically, dude gets tens of billions a year in stock options, as long as Tesla does well.  (I imagine SpaceX and other offshoots are smaller, but similar for him.)

[dalekphalm]

As others have mentioned, the vast majority of his income comes from Stocks. Should he get paid a salary on top of that? That's up to him and the Board. As part owner of the company, he certainly receives enough compensation via Stocks to still be among the richest people alive.

 

As long as he's driving the company towards growth and profit, he deserves some kind of compensation. The specifics of that are between him and the board.

 

I do think he should be fairly taxed, even on his Stocks.

[Wictorian]

10 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

I do think he should be fairly taxed, even on his Stocks.

More or less?

[adarw]

he doesnt buy much with his name, but usually buys them as a business, its a loophole so its better for him tax wise.

[Wictorian]

28 minutes ago, adarw said:

he doesnt buy much with his name, but usually buys them as a business, its a loophole so its better for him tax wise.

It’s not a loophole. There are no loopholes.

[dalekphalm]

10 hours ago, Wictorian said:

More or less?

I haven't looked into his taxation rate, so I cannot make an informed comment on it.

 

Most likely he's being undertaxed, simply because most billionaires are being undertaxed.

9 hours ago, Wictorian said:

It’s not a loophole. There are no loopholes.

That's naïve at best.

 

Sometimes there are intentional "loopholes" left into the system on purpose. Often there are unintended consequences from new tax laws that do create loopholes.

[Alder Lake]

9 hours ago, Wictorian said:

It’s not a loophole. There are no loopholes.

there are definitely loopholes in any system

 

he could probably request to have a tesla car as a "business purchase," even if it's just for his enjoyment

[Wictorian]

15 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

 

That's naïve at best.

 

Sometimes there are intentional "loopholes" left into the system on purpose. Often there are unintended consequences from new tax laws that do create loopholes.

That’s what I meant

[WhitetailAni]

On 11/13/2021 at 1:29 AM, Wictorian said:

That’s what I meant

That’s not what it sounded like at all. On text-based chat, all the meaning we can get out of words is what the words say and maybe some context. No pronunciation, inflection, etc.

If you want a more complex point to come across you’ll need to lay most of not all of it out in words and not leave it up to interpretation.

[WihGlah]

It's a classic strategy. Instead of taking a salary, he takes stock options that mature in a few years. That way he gradually builds his total stock portfolio while having zero tax liability. Corporations do the same thing, they "re-invest" to actively avoid making profits so their tax liability gets cut to zero while increasing the value of the company. Stockholders love it because it increases their capital investment value. 

 

At the same time they depreciate those same investments more quickly than they actual de-value. This results in asset growth.

 

 

BTW - Elon sold a bunch of stock recently to pay taxes on them. This was a master stroke because he has a bunch of options maturing this financial year - so he was going to have to pay a butt load of tax anyway. He will effectively get his options tax free now. Also - if he gives his suggested $6billion away, that will be tax deductible for next year.