How Much Did Elon Musk Pay In Tax? SpaceX Boss Reveals ‘Too Many Digits’ Once Crashed The IRS Computer: ‘They Had To Update The..’

Elon Musk jumped into a conversation on X when someone shared a chart about how Americans pay income taxes. The graphic broke down who really shoulders the tax burden in the U.S. for 2021.

Turns out, the top 5% of earners paid most of the bill, while the bottom half barely made a dent.

Elon Musk Claims His Tax Payment Once Crashed IRS Systems

Musk, never shy about these things, chimed in with his own story. He claimed he once paid so much in taxes that it actually crashed the IRS’s computer system.

“Too many digits,” Musk joked, saying the IRS had to update its software just to handle his payment.

Elon Musk’s Viral IRS Comment Brings Focus to Who Really Pays US Income Taxes

According to that chart, the top 0.1% of earners paid over a quarter of all federal income taxes. The top 1%? Almost half. Meanwhile, the lower 50% contributed just 0.1%. It’s a lopsided system, and Musk’s own tax situation keeps bringing it into the spotlight.

Back in 2021, Musk said publicly that he’d pay more than $11 billion in taxes that year. That’s a jaw-dropping figure, but it lines up with Forbes’ numbers, which estimated that from 2014 to 2018, Musk made about $1.52 billion and paid $455 million in taxes.

Bloomberg dug into the details and found that the massive tax bill stemmed from Musk exercising Tesla stock options that were about to expire.

If that’s accurate, it’s one of the biggest individual tax payments in U.S. history. Most of Musk’s money doesn’t come from a salary, but from the soaring value of companies like Tesla and SpaceX, which he either started or runs.

US Tax Burden Explained

Now, about that fortune, Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires List puts Musk’s net worth at $726.3 billion. That’s more than some countries. Even after a $3.3 billion dip when Tesla shares slipped 1% to $449.72, the stock still jumped 18% for the year, peaking near $500.

Musk reclaimed the title of world’s richest person in May 2024, bumping LVMH’s Bernard Arnault from the top. Arnault had only held it for a few months, after a Delaware judge tossed out Musk’s Tesla pay package.

The rest of the billionaire leaderboard? Google’s Larry Page at $256.9 billion, Oracle’s Larry Ellison with $245 billion, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos at $242.2 billion, and Google’s Sergey Brin at $237.1 billion. Musk, for now, is in a league of his own. 

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