“I don’t have any offshore accounts, no tax shelters,” Musk told conservative satire website the Babylon Bee, adding that his wealth “isn’t some deep mystery.”
When asked if H&R Block could do his taxes, he said: “H&R Block could easily do my taxes. I don’t need H&R Block, I could do it. It would take a few hours. My taxes are very basic.”
The businessman explained that his huge wealth and low taxes are both products of simple math. The wealth is derived from his ownership stakes in Tesla and SpaceX, which he said were “massively painful and difficult to build.”
Musk is expected to pay what is likely to be the largest single individual tax bill in US history, with federal and California income taxes estimated to exceed $11 billion. He is required to pay the tax in order to receive compensation of more than $23 billion, paid in the form of stock options that would otherwise expire in August.