8. According to an analyst at Goldman Sachs, Elon Musk is going to be the first person to reach the wealth of $1 trillion (i.e. $ 1 000 000 000 000). The analyst based it on the projections of the value of the other company Mr. Musk set up: Space X.
For now (as of yesterday) he is worth a mere $ 275 000 000 000 - see Real Time Billionaires (forbes.com). Still far from the nominal value of the Zimbabwean note I showed you, but getting there.
There are 11 people/families in the world worth over $100 billion.
Right now the way to avoid paying taxes by rich people in the US goes as follows:
1. Do not sell shares
2. Borrow money against the shares to finance your expenses
3. Give the shares to your offspring in your will
4. When you die, they do not pay any tax on the capital gains.
So if Mr. Musk passed away today, and if he had left all his shares to X Æ A-12, the capital gains of $279 billion would not have been taxed.
In the US, they are trying to extract some of this wealth by introducing a billionaire tax. If you have at least $ 1 billion, or had an income of at least $100 million in each of the last three years, you will have to pay a tax on unrealized capital gains.
Why are they doing it? Not because they think it is a good idea. This is the best Democrats have left as earlier proposals for a tax increase would not be passed by Congress.
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