Business mogul Elon Musk is defending himself from public scrutiny once again. This time, the Tesla CEO is responding to criticism about his income tax.
Musk tweeted early this week: “If you opened your eyes for 2 seconds, you would realize I will pay more taxes than any American in history this year.”
His tweet was in response and directed at Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who jabbed at Musk’s Time Magazine “Person of the Year” accolade by calling him out on his taxes.
“Let’s change the rigged tax code so The Person of the Year will actually pay taxes and stop freeloading off everyone else,” Warren tweeted.
“Stop projecting,” Musk tweeted at Warren, while linking to a Fox News column calling Warren a “fraud.” “You remind me of when I was a kid and my friend’s angry Mom would just randomly yell at everyone for no reason. Please don’t call the manager on me, Senator Karen.”
Musk added in his tweet to Warren: “Don’t spend it all at once … oh wait you did already.”
Warren, a former Democratic presidential candidate, has been a proponent of a wealth tax, which would impose a tax on wealthy Americans as well as their financial assets. Congress has not moved forward on passing a wealth tax.
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Musk is the richest person in the world with a net worth of $251 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Warren’s criticism derives from a 2018 ProPublica investigation that revealed Musk paid nothing in federal income taxes that year.
According to a CNN report, Musk will have to pay at least $7.6 billion in taxes for 2021.
