Yes, it is largely true that Tesla has paid zero federal income taxes in several recent years (including 2018–2020, 2022, and 2024), despite reporting billions in profit. This is due to legal tax avoidance strategies, such as using past losses to offset profits, accelerated depreciation on factories, and tax credits.
ITEP's findings on this topic, which generated widespread public outrage on its release in January, identified four factors that explain Tesla's zero percent income tax rate in 2024: accelerated depreciation, executive stock options, unspecified “U.S. tax credits,” and net operating loss carryforwards.
In some years, billionaires such as Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and George Soros paid no federal income taxes at all. Billionaires avoid these taxes by taking out special ultra-low-interest loans available only to them and using their assets as collateral. Tesla paid $0 in federal income tax last year.
You are responsible for paying these addi onal taxes and fees. If Tesla is registering your Vehicle, this will be due when you pay the purchase price. If you are registering your Vehicle in a self-registra on state, the sales tax and state-applicable registra on fees may be due at me of registra on.
However, in a post Monday on X, Musk suggested Direct File had been “deleted” as part of his campaign against government overspending. The program's website was still up Wednesday morning, although an X account for an associated IRS agency was down.
Back in 2007 and 2011, Bezos didn't pay any federal income taxes, according to a 2021 ProPublica review of decades of IRS data belonging to America's wealthiest businessmen.
Michael Bloomberg, Carl Icahn and George Soros all managed to avoid paying any federal income taxes at some point in recent years, in some cases multiple times. Overall, according to ProPublica data, the 25 wealthiest Americans paid taxes equal to 3.4% of their wealth gain from 2014 to 2018.
Musk also sold a small fraction of the additional shares he already owned, sales that fetched a taxable $5.8 billion at a lower capital gains rate. Together those stock trades likely resulted in roughly an $11 billion federal tax bill, which he has tweeted about.
These include HP, Nike, Jacobs Engineering, Advanced Micro Devices and Ecolab. Tax breaks for renewable energy are part of the tax avoidance scheme for several companies, including Qurate Retail, Xcel Energy, DTE, and Duke Energy.
New York tax expert Robert Willens tells Barron's that Zuckerberg faces a 23.8% federal tax bite—20% federal tax on dividend income and a 3.8% Medicare surcharge—plus the top 13.3% state income-tax rate in California.
One easy way to pay no income tax is to have little or no taxable income. For tax year 2025, taxpayers receive a standard deduction of $15,750 (singles or married persons filing separately) or $31,500 (marrieds filing jointly). For heads of households, the standard deduction is $23,625 for tax year 2025.
“The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.” Albert Einstein hit the nail on the head with this oft-repeated quote. The U.S. Tax Code is long, complex, and ever-changing. This is especially true for people with higher incomes, changing life circumstances, and families to consider.
According to ITEP, Tesla was able to avoid paying $500 million in taxes by using accelerated depreciation, a tax avoidance method and incentive for businesses which allows companies to write off the costs of an asset faster than it would normally actually lose value.
One of the biggest reasons Bezos pays little in personal income tax is that he doesn't rely on a traditional salary. Instead, he holds most of his wealth in Amazon stock. Here's why this matters: Capital gains taxes are much lower than income taxes in most cases.
Yes, Elon Musk's foundation gave $55 million to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in 2021, following his public pledge of $50 million during the Inspiration4 space mission to help the hospital reach its fundraising goals, contributing to a total of over $200 million raised by the mission.
ELON MUSK: "I'm the largest individual taxpayer in history, so I paid $10 billion in tax."
Pop superstar Beyoncé and the IRS agree that she owes $709.20 in tax and penalties instead of the nearly $2.7 million that the agency had asserted in a deficiency notice, according to a stipulated decision approved by the Tax Court . The decision document in Knowles-Carter v.