Elon Musk's US tax bill: $11 billion. Tesla's: $0
CNN
Elon Musk has repeatedly bragged (or, perhaps, complained) that he'll pay more in federal taxes for 2021 than anyone has ever paid — about $11 billion. But Tesla apparently won't pay a cent.
Tesla may not plan to pay federal taxes any time in the foreseeable future -- even though the company just reported by far its most profitable year ever. In 2021, Tesla recorded net income of $5.5 billion, and adjusted income of $7.6 billion.
But buried in a footnote of its recent annual financial filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Tesla reports that its US operations lost $130 million last year on a pre-tax basis. It claims that all of its pre-tax profits — more than $6 billion worth — came from overseas operations, even though 45% of its revenue came from US sales.