Mark Zuckerberg Agrees to Stay in California Despite Billionaires’ Tax Ballot Measure
Mark Zuckerberg Agrees to Stay in California Despite Billionaires’ Tax Ballot Measure
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has agreed to keep living in Silicon Valley for eight years, potentially exposing himself to billions of dollars in one-time taxes if California voters approve a contentious ballot measure next month, according to a company regulatory filing released Wednesday.
根据周三发布的一份公司监管文件显示，Meta首席执行官马克·扎克伯格已同意在硅谷继续居住八年。如果加州选民在下个月投票通过一项颇具争议的提案，他可能会面临数十亿美元的一次性税款。
During a dinner with Meta board members on September 9, Zuckerberg informed them that he was considering leaving California because of the measure, known as Proposition 40, and that he planned to list his Palo Alto, California home for sale four days later, the 109-page filing stated. The ballot proposal, which could be subject to lawsuits even if voters approve it, calls for a one-time 5 percent tax on stock and other assets held by billionaires in the state as of January 2026.
这份长达109页的文件指出，在9月9日与Meta董事会成员共进晚餐时，扎克伯格告知他们，由于这项被称为“40号提案”的措施，他正在考虑离开加州，并计划在四天后挂牌出售其位于加州帕洛阿托的住所。该提案即使获得选民通过，也可能面临诉讼，其内容要求对该州亿万富翁截至2026年1月持有的股票及其他资产征收5%的一次性税款。
Many wealthy individuals, including Zuckerberg, currently avoid significant tax payments by borrowing against their shares and taking low salaries—$1 annually in the Meta CEO’s case. Zuckerberg purchased a home in Florida this past February, the Wall Street Journal reported at the time.
包括扎克伯格在内的许多富人目前通过以股票抵押贷款和领取低薪（Meta首席执行官的年薪为1美元）来规避巨额税款。据《华尔街日报》当时报道，扎克伯格已于今年2月在佛罗里达州购买了一处房产。
His potential cross-country move concerned a special committee of the board, whose members included attorney Robert Kimmitt, venture capitalist Charlie Songhurst, and DoorDash CEO Tony Xu. “The special committee was mindful about the difficulties the company faced during the COVID-19 pandemic when Zuckerberg could not be physically present with the company’s management team and did not want the company to face similar challenges going forward,” according to Wednesday’s filing.
他可能跨州搬迁的举动引起了董事会一个特别委员会的担忧，该委员会成员包括律师罗伯特·基米特（Robert Kimmitt）、风险投资家查理·宋赫斯特（Charlie Songhurst）以及DoorDash首席执行官徐迅（Tony Xu）。周三的文件称：“特别委员会考虑到在新冠疫情期间，扎克伯格无法与公司管理团队面对面办公，导致公司面临诸多困难，因此不希望公司未来再遇到类似的挑战。”
Within days of the Meta board dinner, the special committee and Zuckerberg reached an agreement that links his ability to sell special company shares to his continued residence in California. It was finalized a week ago, and on Wednesday, Meta announced the details. It plans to create a new class of shares that hold no voting power. Selling these shares could potentially help raise funds for Meta’s expensive investments into AI data centers, without diluting Zuckerberg’s existing voting control.
在Meta董事会晚宴后的几天内，特别委员会与扎克伯格达成了一项协议，将其出售公司特殊股票的权利与他继续居住在加州挂钩。该协议于一周前敲定，Meta于周三公布了细节。公司计划创建一类不具备投票权的新股。出售这些股票可能有助于为Meta在人工智能数据中心的高额投资筹集资金，同时不会稀释扎克伯格现有的投票控制权。
All existing shareholders will receive the new nonvoting shares automatically in proportion to their existing holdings. Under what Meta called a “Founder Alignment Agreement” with Zuckerberg, he can sell 20 percent of those new shares to help pay any taxes he may owe. The remaining 80 percent would be available for sale in chunks over the next eight years as long as he remains in California. Any attempt to sell them early would require offloading some of his voting shares “unless there are material unforeseen circumstances that would render it prudent or advisable for Zuckerberg to reside elsewhere.”
所有现有股东将按其持股比例自动获得这些新的无投票权股票。根据Meta与扎克伯格签署的所谓“创始人一致协议”，他可以出售其中20%的新股以支付可能产生的税款。只要他继续居住在加州，剩余的80%股票可在未来八年内分批出售。任何提前出售这些股票的尝试都将要求他减持部分投票权股票，“除非出现重大不可预见的情况，使得扎克伯格居住在其他地方变得审慎或可取。”
Notably, the agreement specifies that Zuckerberg merely has to remain wherever Meta maintains its headquarters, so it’s possible that both he and the company could move together to another state. A number of California companies left for Texas, Nevada, and other states in recent years. Google cofounders Sergey Brin and Larry Page are among the handful of billionaires widely believed to have exited California over the potential tax.
值得注意的是，协议明确规定扎克伯格只需留在Meta总部所在地即可，因此他和公司完全有可能一起搬迁到另一个州。近年来，许多加州公司已迁往德克萨斯州、内华达州和其他州。谷歌联合创始人谢尔盖·布林（Sergey Brin）和拉里·佩奇（Larry Page）被广泛认为是因潜在税收而离开加州的少数亿万富翁之一。
But with much of the most pioneering AI development happening in Silicon Valley, leaving the city of Menlo Park could be a difficult proposition for the Meta board to stomach. “The goal is to keep Zuckerberg continuing to lead the company from California and in close proximity to Meta Superintelligence Labs,” the filing stated, referring to the company unit behind its recent Muse AI models.
然而，由于许多最具开创性的人工智能开发工作都在硅谷进行，离开门洛帕克市对Meta董事会来说可能是一个难以接受的提议。文件指出：“目标是让扎克伯格继续在加州领导公司，并与Meta超级智能实验室（Meta Superintelligence Labs）保持近距离接触。”该实验室正是负责公司近期Muse AI模型的部门。
In the end, the exercise may have been for naught. Recent polling in California suggests that with about $129 million spent campaigning against Prop 40, it will fail to muster enough votes.
最终，这一番折腾可能白费了。加州近期的民意调查显示，随着约1.29亿美元被用于反对40号提案的宣传活动，该提案将无法获得足够的选票。