TeslaThe CEO Elon MuskHe will be facing a tax bill in excess of $15 billion for stock options over the next few months, which makes it likely that he sells his Tesla stock. regardless of the Twitter vote

Musk asked 62.7 million of his Twitter followers whether they should let him sell 10% off his Tesla stock. He tweeted: “Much lately has been made of unrealized gains as a method of tax avoidance. Therefore, I propose selling 10% Tesla stock.”

Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, said that he would follow the poll’s results “no matter what.” According to the results, 58% voted for selling shares and 42% voted against. This suggests that he will be selling them.

No matter what the poll results might have indicated, Musk could likely start selling millions of shares within the quarter. Reason: A looming tax bill exceeding $15 billion.

As part of his compensation package, Musk received options in 2012. He doesn’t get a salary, cash bonus or a commission. Instead his wealth is built from stock dividends and increases in Tesla’s share prices. He was awarded 22.8million shares for $6.24 each share. Tesla shares closed Friday at $1222.09, which means that his gains on shares are just below $28 billion.

Musk recently revealed that he has borrowed money using shares of his company as collateral. With the sale, Musk might be able to pay off some of these loan obligations.

Tesla stated in the third quarter Securities and Exchange Commission 10-Q filing that this year, “If the stock price falls substantially, Mr. Musk could be required by one or more banks to sell Tesla stock to pay his loans obligations.” This could lead to a further decline in the common stock’s price.

These options will expire next August. Musk must pay income tax to be able to exercise the options. Because the options are considered employee benefit, compensation or a tax, they will be subject to income tax at the highest ordinary income level, which is 37% plus 3.8% net tax. Because the options were granted, and most of them earned during his California residency, he’ll have to also pay California’s 13.3% highest tax rate.

Combining the federal and state taxes, they will total 54.1%. The total tax bill for all his options at current prices would amount to $15 billion.

Musk hasn’t yet confirmed how much the tax bill will be. Musk tweeted that he does not accept any cash bonus or salary from anyone. Since I have only stock, the only way to pay taxes is to actually sell it.

Musk is expected to be selling stocks in 2021’s fourth quarter, as CEOs are limited in their time to offer stock sales. Tax experts and analysts have predicted that Musk will do this.

At an appearance at the Code conference in September, Musk said: “I have a bunch of options that are expiring early next year, so … a huge block of options will sell in Q4 — because I have to or they’ll expire.”

Musk could borrow even more on his Tesla shares which currently total nearly $200 billion. He has already pledged 92,000,000 shares to lenders in return for cash borrowing. He said that stocks don’t always rise, but they can also fall when asked about his plans to borrow against volatile shares at the Code Conference.

Musk still has options available beyond what was granted to him by Tesla’s 2012 salary package. In March 2018, Tesla’s board of directors granted him an unprecedented “CEO Performance Award” consisting of 101.3 million stock options (adjusted for the 5-for-1 stock split in 2020) in 12 milestone-based tranches.

—Lora Kolodny from CNBC contributed to the report.