Elon Musk, founder and chief executive officer of electric vehicle maker Tesla Inc. (TSLA) donated Tesla shares worth $5.7 billion to charity last November. This was revealed through Tesla’s filing with the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) showing that between November 19 to November 29 Musk donated a total of 5,044,000 shares to a charity.
Based on closing prices of Tesla’s shares for the five day period which Musk made the donation the shares were worth $5.7 billion. The filing however failed to reveal the name of the charity organization.
“His tax benefit would be huge. He’d save between 40% and 50% 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,” said Bob Lord, a tax policy expert.
Lord further adds that musk might have made the stock donation to intermediaries such as a ‘donor-advised funds’ and not necessarily that the donation was made direct to charity organizations.
