<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/16/taxes-arent-the-only-reason-elon-musk-is-selling-tesla-stock-.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/16/taxes-arent-the-only-reason-...</a><p><pre><code> > Yet most of last week’s sales were for a different reason. Rather than selling as part of an options exercise, Musk started selling from his existing shares. Accountants said it would be impractical for Musk to use those existing shares to pay the tax on his options, since they carry a much higher tax bill.
> Typically, executives sell the exercised shares immediately after they’re purchased to pay the taxes, in what’s known as a “cashless” exercise. Since the shares are sold immediately, there is no additional capital gains tax owed on the shares sold.
> Because Musk’s sales beginning Nov. 9 were straight stock sales with little or no cost basis, he would owe long-term capital gains taxes of up to $1.3 billion. Using those proceeds to pay the options tax would amount to paying taxes twice — once on the capital gains and once on the options.
> “It wouldn’t make sense from a tax perspective for him to use those proceeds for the options tax,” said Toby Johnston, partner in charge of the Silicon Valley office of Moss Adams, an accounting, consulting and wealth management firm.
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TL;DR: he seems to be selling more shares than needed strictly to pay taxes or to exercise option, and he selling in a tax-<i>in</i>efficient manner, therefore seemingly increasing his tax bill (any CPA on HN could opine better)<p>Not sure if that quells the "billionaires should pay their fair dues" shouts that haunt him on every public discourse.