Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, is racking up quite a hefty tax expected to be paid before the year ends. With that, the number is expected to range from at least $7.6 billion all the way up to $15 billion.

Elon Musk to Pay $15 Billion in Taxes

A tweet by JeffTutorials cited that Elon Musk will be paying "over $15,000,000,000 in taxes this year," making a new record for the highest tax paid in American history as per the account. In response to a tweet regarding his taxes, the Tesla CEO said he will "pay more taxes than any American in history this year."

According to an article by Fortune, Musk has been offloading his Tesla shares in droves ever since he initially declared he would be selling his stock on Twitter in November. As per his tweet, the billionaire will be getting rid of 10% of his total stock.

Tesla CEO Sells $13 Billion in Tesla Shares

As of the moment, Elon Musk has already sold almost $13 billion in Tesla shares ever since October, which will all be subject to income tax. The billionaire is expected to pay at least $7.6 billion in taxes for the year, as per CNN.

That number, however, could go all the way up to $15 billion depending on just how much more stock he decides to sell as per CNBC. To expand, the poll he previously asked whether to sell his stock or not resulted in 57.9% saying yes, with Musk following up that he would abide by the results.

Musk Awarded 22.8 Million Shares in 2012

In 2012, the billionaire was awarded options as part of his compensation plan. This is because he doesn't take a salary or even a cash bonus with his wealth coming from stock awards and the gains he experiences through Tesla's share price.

The 2012 award for a massive 22.8 million shares at a strike price of just $6.24 is extremely far from the current shares at $975.99 during this writing. As per the publication, Musk has also taken out loans using his shares as collateral, and with its sale, the billionaire will be able to repay some of the loan obligations he still has.

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What Would Happen If Elon Musk Sells His Shares?

The company noted during its Q3 SEC 10-Q filing that should pay the price of their common stock decline substantially, Elon Musk could be forced by one or more banking institutions to sell his shares in order to satisfy the billionaire's loan obligations if "he could not do so through other means."

Tesla also noted that any such sale could result in the price of their common stock going down further.

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Written by Urian B.