One super billionaire says he’ll pay $11 billion in taxes this year.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a daily ranking of the world’s wealthiest people (the figures are updated upon the close of every New York trading day), the globe’s most rich accumulatively became $1 trillion richer last year.
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Elon Musk, who surpassed Amazon’s Jeff Bezos as the world’s richest person last September, gained about $118 billion. Before the Tesla CEO’s wealth spike in twelve months was only ever achieved by American business magnate John D. Rockefeller.
The other billionaires whose worth soared in 12 months are ranked in the top seven richest on earth.
Soaring net worths
LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault earned over $62.7 billion, Google’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin earned more than $47 billion and $45 billion, respectively. And last but not least, despite a terror year of whistleblower leaks, court hearings, and the “Facebook Papers,” Mark Zuckerberg made about $25 billion.
At the same time, due to the ongoing pandemic, 150 million people fell into extreme poverty, as reported by the World Bank.
The merged net worths of the people included in Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index equates to $8.4 trillion, which is over every country’s gross domestic product (GDP)—besides America and China.
Staying rich
It’s not a secret that America’s wealthiest stay rich by not being taxed (see US representative and activist AOC’s statement MET Gala look). However, throughout last year, US lawmakers drafted proposals for the “millionaire’s tax” to help fund President Joe Biden’s social and climate-change agenda.
Unsurprisingly, the super-rich like Musk ridiculed the implementation of such laws. In recent years, he’s paid “little or no income tax,” even though Musk built his trillion-dollar company partly with government aid.
But last December, the 50-year-old posted a Tweet that read, “for those wondering, I will pay over $11 billion in taxes this year.”
If so, the payment will be recorded as the most taxes paid by any American in history.
Banner photo from @dereyesycarpinteros on Instagram
