It’s a sad day when you side with a billionaire. Washington Wizards’ forward Kyle Kuzma is now under fire for retweeting a CNN story that said Elon Musk will owe $11B in taxes, the largest amount ever for an individual. Kuzma quoted the tweet, mocking the argument “the rich don’t pay taxes”. The hooper once sided with Bernie Sanders on taxing Amazon, so his latest tweet comes as a surprise.
Though the rich really don’t get taxed, it’s not a surprise that the richest person in the world would face such a high tax bill. Earlier this year, Tesla became the sixth company ever in the U.S to be worth $1 trillion. Musk is now valued at around $255.2 billion, so an $11B tax bill would be pocket change to the CEO. While Kuzma mocked the argument, he failed to realize that the rich always have the upper hand when paying taxes – if they even pay them.
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Earlier this month, Musk also announced how much he would be paying in taxes in a sympathetic tweet but was given a quick math lesson by writer Anya Overmann. “That’s 4.5% of your net worth. You paid 3.27% between 2014 and 2018, & no fed taxes at all in 2018. You made $36 billion in ONE DAY in 2021. Most US ppl pay 10 to 37% in fed taxes & up to 13.3% in state taxes. Stop vying for sympathy from people who pay and pay your fair share,” she tweeted. Well said.
Since his tweet, some have tried to educate Kuzma but of course, he’s still being ridiculed for siding with a multi-billionaire.