[eesmith]

When interpreted literally, "Only poor people pay taxes." is wrong because even rich people end up paying, for example, sales tax.

Instead, phrases like "won’t pay a single cent" are meant to mean "pay very little".

As Wikipedia's source material points out: "Between 2014 and 2018, Musk paid $455 million in taxes on $1.52 billion of income, according to ProPublica, despite his wealth growing by $13.9 billion over that period."

$455 million / $13.9 billion < 3.3% of his gained wealth.

This is because, as the source points out, "Rather than take a salary or cash bonus, Musk’s wealth comes from stock awards and gains in Tesla’s share price." and "When Musk wants cash, he can simply borrow money using his company’s stock as collateral." This is a tax avoidance mechanism not available to poor people.

I have paid far more than 3.3% of my gained wealth in taxes. I paid income taxes in 2018 even though Musk did not.

That same source says "Elon Musk says he will pay over $11 billion in taxes this year" (2021) -- did he?