As the fella says in the classic musical Singin’ in the Rain: You got the fame, you gotta take the little heartaches that go along with it.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s got the fame. He’s a household name and an Andy Samberg character. He also made around $13 billion in his company’s initial public offering last year.
Now for the little heartache: A tax bill for one. Billion. Dollars.
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When reached for comment, Zuckerberg told VentureBeat, “This suuuuucks.”*
*Just kidding. That never happened. But a panel of California CPAs did tell CNNMoney that the entrepreneur’s capital gains bill will probably be around $1.1 billion.
Ungodly tax bills aside, the guy gets to keep roughly $12 billion of his paper fortune — and a controlling percentage of votes on Facebook’s board.
And we are 100 percent certain that Zuck and his army of financial professionals have been preparing for the pitfalls of new wealth since long before the IPO. In fact, Zuckerberg sold around $1 billion in shares on the day of Facebook’s IPO, likely in preparation for the tax bill that was to come.
The young CEO also makes a fair amount of charitable contributions, which, though we’re sure they come from the best intentions, probably help to offset his tax bill. Example: the half-billion donation he made at the end of last year.
Image credit: deneyterrio/Flickr
