California wealth tax would take effect Jan. 1 if voters adopt Proposition 40

Meta settled $18 billion with attorneys general from several states in August

California voters will decide the state’s wealth-tax proposal, Proposition 40, on Nov. 3, and if they adopt it, the measure would take effect Jan. 1, according to United Press International. If passed, the proposal would impose a one-time tax of 5% on about 250 billionaires living in California.

Meta also reached an $18 billion settlement in August in a lawsuit brought by attorneys general from several states, UPI reported. The company faces legal challenges over its culpability in the harms of social media for children and social media addiction, according to the outlet.

On the business side, Meta reported that revenue increased 26% in the last quarter, reaching $64.6 billion in an earnings report.

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., said the wealth tax would help working-class Californians. “Every society is taxed. The only question is who will pay,” Khanna wrote to The Guardian last week.

Khanna also wrote: “In Trump’s America, working people pay more than they should, while billionaires are so unburdened that they are becoming trillionaires. In America we seek, billionaires and trillionaires will pay their fair share, while working people will be unburdened.”

UPI described Mark Zuckerberg as among the wealthiest of California’s billionaires and one of the wealthiest men in the world, with a reported worth of about $239 billion. The outlet reported that Zuckerberg has threatened to leave the state if the billionaire tax passes, because he would face a tax bill of billions of dollars.

Behind that threat sits an arrangement Meta and Zuckerberg struck this week to help shield him from paying a potential California wealth tax, UPI reported. The agreement, reached on Wednesday, gives Zuckerberg new Meta shares he can sell to pay toward a wealth tax should California lawmakers pass a billionaire tax, and requires that he remain a California resident.

The shares Zuckerberg receives under the agreement are non-voting, which means he can sell them without selling any portion of his control of the company, UPI reported.