// BBC WORLD NEWS — MONDO
Zuckerberg wins Meta deal to help him foot bill for possible California billionaire tax
Meta has agreed to a new deal with chief executive Mark Zuckerberg to prevent him from leaving California over a proposed state tax on billionaires.
The agreement gives Zuckerberg, whose wealth is estimated to exceed $200bn (£149bn), even more shares in Meta to make up for the fraction of his fortune he may lose if the tax wins voter approval in November.
The measure would impose a one-time 5% tax on residents with a net worth of more than $1bn. It would likely see the Facebook co-founder pay around $10bn in additional state taxes.
He secured the deal with a special committee of Meta after "robust" and "at several points, contentious" negotiations, according to a Wednesday financial disclosure.
California is home to most of the US's technology giants and there are around 225 billionaires who reside in the state, according to the Americans for Tax Fairness campaign group.
The wealth of such people, including Zuckerberg, has ballooned in recent years. Meanwhile, his estimated effective tax rate in California was less than 1%, external each year.
Nevertheless, Zuckerberg told Meta's board last month that he was thinking of moving his primary residence out of California, and even selling his property in the state. His main homes in Californa are in Palo Alto and Lake Tahoe.
Such a move "would be public and inevitably noted and commented upon by company employees", Zuckerberg told the board.
It would also "raise questions for management of the company going forward", he claimed.
In response, Meta decided to create more shares of stock in the company in order to give Zuckerberg a way to essentially make up any wealth he may lose through the tax proposal.