Mark Zuckerberg came close to putting California in his rearview mirror over a proposed wealth tax, newly released regulatory filings show. Meta’s board worked out a 2-for-1 stock split and a new class of nonvoting shares to fund its AI push, after Zuckerberg told directors he was weighing a move to escape Proposition 40, a November ballot measure that would slap a one-time 5% tax on residents worth $1 billion or more as of Jan. 1, per the Wall Street Journal. The Guardian notes there are about 250 billionaires currently living in the Golden State.
If the proposition passes, Meta says its founder faces a “significant, multibillion dollar” tax bill that could force him to sell shares and dilute his voting power, per the Journal. The solution: Class C shares “stapled” to his voting stock, with 20% immediately sellable—explicitly to cover the possible tax—and an agreement that Zuckerberg will keep his primary residence in the same state as Meta’s headquarters for eight years, not counting “material unforeseen circumstances.” The New York Times notes that Zuckerberg had been negotiating with the board on the matter since July, but in September he turned up the heat, giving the board four days to strike a deal with him or he’d put his Silicon Valley home on the market.