$270 Billion Tesla Took Additional Benefits From An Unnamed Government Juicing Its Financial Results

Here’s an interesting quagmire for the SEC if they ever decide to break from their decades-long coma.

Apparently not happy enough with building a cash-torching $270 billion empire directly off the backs of U.S. taxpayer-funded subsidies, Tesla reportedly also decided to take payroll benefits from an unspecified government agency during the first half of the year this year “to help reduce the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on its business,” the company said in its most recent 10-Q.

The help – wherever it came from – helped reduce the impact of Covid on the company’s financial results, the company said.

This story breaks, of course, literally hours after Tesla’s billionaire CEO, Elon Musk, took to Twitter to discourage further government aid to U.S. citizens while the topic of a second round of stimulus is currently being debated on Capitol Hill. 

Another government stimulus package is not in the best interests of the people imo

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 24, 2020

Tesla’s Fremont factory was shut down for about 6 weeks during the second quarter in June while Musk bickered with the state of California and Alameda County about how he should be allowed to re-open. Shortly after re-opening, a litany of coronavirus cases were discovered on the premises and employees were reportedly frightened to go back to work.

Tesla and SolarCity do not appear on the U.S. SBA list of those who received PPP loans from the government and Reuters was unable to determine what government agency offered Tesla assistance. 

“As part of various governmental responses to the pandemic granted to companies globally, we received certain payroll related benefits which helped to reduce the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our financial results,” the company had stated in its regulatory filing. 

Perhaps the SEC would be interested in just how much these payroll benefits helped Tesla’s financial results?

And we would certainly be interested in hearing which division – of which government – offered Musk the free ride.