Tesla chief Elon Musk recently claimed while campaigning for President-elect Donald Trump that he is the largest individual taxpayer in history. Musk claimed he paid over $10 billion in taxes to the Internal Service Revenue (IRS). Jokingly, the billionaire said he wished the IRS would send him a trophy, even a small, inexpensive one that kids win in karate competitions. While sighing that he didn't receive anything, he clarified that he was happy to pay taxes for society overall.
However, ProPublica's analysis of IRS data from 2014 to 2018 revealed that Musk paid no federal income taxes in 2018. More surprisingly, Michael Bloomberg was able to pay taxes at one of the lowest rates by claiming deductions of over $1 billion. Between 2013 and 2017, Bloomberg deducted an average of $409 million annually from his state and local tax liabilities. Even billionaire investors like Carl Icahn and George Soros avoided paying taxes for multiple years in a row despite tremendous net worth growth during the same duration.
