Elon Musk has made sure that everyone knows he will pay more in income taxes this year than anyone ever has—about $11 billion—as a result of his exercising a massive package of Tesla stock options in 2021. What he has not been so vocal about, though, is the fact that Tesla the company will pay $0 in federal tax despite raking in a record profit of $5.5 billion in 2021.
In its annual report filed with the SEC on February 7, Tesla said in an inconspicuous note section on page 86, as first reported by CNN, that its U.S. operations recorded a loss of $130 million in 2021 and that all of its pre-tax net income stemmed from overseas operations.
As a result, Tesla said it expects to pay $0 in federal corporate income tax and $9 million in state tax (Tesla relocated its headquarters from California to Texas on December 1, 2021.) On its foreign profit, Tesla will pay $699 million in income taxes, which translates into an effective tax rate of 11 percent, far below the 21 percent federal corporate tax rate in the U.S.
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