Elon Musk reacted to a post on social media that showed how income taxes are paid in the United States. The chart shared by an X user broke down federal income tax payments in 2021. It showed that the top 5% of taxpayers paid a large majority of income taxes, while the bottom half contributed almost nothing.
‘Too many digits’: Musk’s viral tax remark
Replying on X, Musk wrote that he once paid so much in taxes that it overwhelmed the Internal Revenue Service’s system. “I paid so much in taxes one year that it broke the IRS computer (actually). Too many digits. They had to update the software to get it processed,” Musk said.
According to the graphic, the top 0.1% of earners paid more than a quarter of all federal income taxes in 2021. The top 1% paid nearly half. Meanwhile, the bottom 50% contributed just 0.1%.
This is not the first time Musk has drawn attention to his taxes. Back in 2021, he publicly said he would pay more than $11 billion to the IRS in a single year. “For those wondering, I will pay over $11 billion in taxes this year,” Musk posted at the time. According to Forbes estimate, between 2014 and 2018, Musk reported around $1.52 billion in income and paid about $455 million in taxes.
I paid so much in taxes one year that it broke the IRS computer (actually). Too many digits. They had to update the software to get it processed. https://t.co/pyUNJWFMwr
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 1, 2026
Bloomberg reported that the huge bill was linked to Musk exercising Tesla stock options that were close to expiring. If true, it would rank among the largest individual tax payments ever made in US history. Most of Musk’s wealth comes from the value of the companies he founded or runs, like Tesla and SpaceX.
Elon Musk’s fortune hits $726 Billion
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, now has a net worth of $726.3 billion, according to Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires List. This comes at the end of a record-breaking year for Musk, whose wealth has grown faster than most people can imagine, surpassing some of the world’s largest economies and companies.
On Wednesday, Musk’s net worth dropped by $3.3 billion after Tesla shares fell 1% to $449.72. Even with this small decline, Tesla stock rose 18% over the year, reaching nearly $500 at its peak.
Musk has held the title of the world’s richest person since May 2024. That’s when he overtook LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault, who had held the top spot for about four months after a Delaware judge voided Musk’s Tesla pay package.
The next richest people include Google co-founder Larry Page ($256.9 billion), Oracle chairman Larry Ellison ($245 billion), Amazon’s Jeff Bezos ($242.2 billion), and Google’s Sergey Brin ($237.1 billion).
