Thanks to a provision buried in the tax code, Elon Musk could reap one of the largest personalized tax breaks in American history if former president Donald Trump wins the 2024 election and fulfills his pledge to appoint Musk to a top government post, according to tax and ethics experts’ review of long-standing statutes.
This special tax benefit — which is only available to federal officials — would be in addition to massive tax breaks Musk could reap if a new Trump administration further cuts income and other taxes for billionaires.
Musk has poured millions of dollars into a Trump-boosting super PAC. His companies, Tesla and SpaceX, currently have billions of dollars of government contracts that could be regulated or expanded by a new government commission or cabinet-level department that Trump is promising will be headed by Musk. Trump has said Musk will be his new “secretary of cost-cutting” and Musk has said he “can’t wait” to work in a Trump White House.
The United States Office of Government Ethics, a federal watchdog agency, notes that “the basic criminal conflict of interest statute prohibits government employees from participating personally and substantially in official matters where they have a financial interest” — and that agency can require top officials to divest corporate holdings that create a conflict of interest in a government job.
A provision inserted into the tax code thirty-five years ago allows government officials to indefinitely defer all capital gains taxes on such divestment — a tax benefit worth potentially tens of billions of dollars to Musk if he is appointed by Trump to a top government post.
The tax benefit has previously been used by George W. Bush administration…
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Auteur: Katya Schwenk
