Facebook is going to go public this year, and Mark Zuckerberg already has his future laid out for him. He plans to exercise stock privileges worth $5 billion of the $28 billion that is his part. The $5 billion will be treated as a salary, thus Zuckerberg will have to on his hands a tax as big as $2 billion. He’s probably going to have to sell stock to do it.
So, based on the fact that mister Zuckerberg’s capital will be made up of Facebook stock sales, his income can be viewed as capital gains, with the current rate being 15%. What is certain is that he will pay taxes of about $2 billion on only the portion of stock that he exercises which is around $5 billion. This seems like a large tax bill at 30% of income!
However, this could end up being the only tax that he every pays on possibly $50 or $100 billion of wealth/ This is because of American tax system which taxes Individuals only when they actually sell property and realize their gains! So if Zuckerberg never sells his shares but only borrows against it, he will never pay other taxes.
On the other hand, the 3,200 Facebook employees will have to pay more. This is because RFUs are perceived as income and taxed at 35%.
[ttjad]
