Tesla Chief Executive ElonMusk donated a total of 5,044,000 shares in the world's mostvaluable automaker to a charity from November 19 to November 29 lastyear, its filing with US Securities and Exchange Commission showed on Monday.
The donation was worth US$5.74 billion, based on the closingprices of Tesla shares on the five days that he donated thestocks.
The filing did not disclose the name of the charity.
Late last year, the billionaire sold US$16.4 billion worth ofshares after polling Twitter users about offloading 10 percent of hisstake in the electric carmaker.
He tweeted last year that he would pay more than US$11 billionin taxes in 2021 due to his exercise of stock options set toexpire this year.
He also traded barbs with politicians Bernie Sanders andElizabeth Warren who called on wealthy people to pay more taxes.
Analysts have said there would be a tax benefit for Muskpotentially gifting Tesla stock. This is because shares that aredonated to charity are not subject to capital gains tax, as theywould be if they were sold.
"His tax benefit would be huge. He'd save between 40 percent and50 percent of the US$5.7 billion in tax, depending on whether he couldtake the deduction against his California income and he'd avoidthe gains tax he would have to pay if he sold the stock," BobLord, an associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Studieswho studies tax policy, said.
He said Musk might have contributed the stock tointermediaries such as "donor-advised funds," not outright tocharitable groups.
Tesla was not immediately available for comment.
Musk Foundation
Musk's public philanthropy gestures have so far trailedother billionaires. Musk and Amazon.com Inc founderJeff Bezos have donated less than 1 percent of their net worth, whereasWarren Buffett and George Soros had given away more than 20 percent oftheir net worth as of early September, according to Forbes.
In 2001, he set up the Musk Foundation, offering grants forthe "development of safe artificial intelligence to benefithumanity" among other causes, according to its website. Musk'sfoundation has over US$200 million in assets.
Earlier last year, Musk and his foundation offered to give US$100 million prizes to those who can come up with a technologyto help remove carbon from the atmosphere. He said last year hewas donating US$20 million to schools in Cameron County, Texaswhere a Space X rocket launch site is located and US$10 million tothe city of Brownsville.
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