Under an agreement finalized about a week before the 21 October 2026 filing, Zuckerberg's ability to sell special shares depends on his continued residence in California for eight years.
Meta will issue nonvoting shares to all existing holders; Zuckerberg may sell 20 percent of his new shares to cover taxes and the other 80 percent over eight years.
The measure would levy a one-time 5 percent tax on assets of roughly 250 billionaires held in California as of January 2026, and Zuckerberg's wealth is put at $246 billion.
On 21 October 2026 the Justice Department dropped appeals of two June rulings, leaving current Public Service Loan Forgiveness rules intact after 10 years of service and 120 monthly payments.
Meta's regulatory filing, released on Wednesday, 21 October 2026, says chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has agreed to keep living in California for eight years. The commitment matters because Proposition 40, which voters decide in November 2026, would impose a one-time 5 percent tax on billionaires' stock and other assets held in the state as of January 2026. Meta's filing says Zuckerberg would need to sell Meta stock to pay that levy, which the company describes as a multi-billion dollar tax payment. The company says he told its board he was weighing a move out of the state because of the measure. The arrangement was finalized about a week before the filing, and Meta made its details public on Wednesday.
Meta will create a class of nonvoting shares and give them automatically to all existing shareholders in proportion to their holdings. Under what the company calls a "Founder Alignment Agreement", Zuckerberg may sell 20 percent of his new shares to help pay any taxes he owes. The other 80 percent can be sold in chunks over the next eight years, but only while he remains in California. Because the new shares carry no votes, he could raise cash without diluting his existing voting control. Meta tried a similar approach about a decade ago and dropped it after other stockholders sued, arguing that Zuckerberg would empower himself at their expense.
Meta's special committee included attorney Robert Kimmitt, venture capitalist Charlie Songhurst and DoorDash chief executive Tony Xu. The committee worried about the disruption Zuckerberg's absence caused during the COVID-19 pandemic, when he could not be in person with the management team. The filing also says that any visible step toward a move, such as listing his home, would be noticed by staff and raise questions for management. The company's own account of the decision reads as follows.
“Zuckerberg informed the Special Committee that he was evaluating relocating his primary residence outside California”
The sequence started with a dinner with board members on 9 September, when Zuckerberg raised the possibility of leaving. The filing states he planned to list his Palo Alto home for sale four days later. The agreement linking his share sales to his continued residence in the state was finalized about a week before Wednesday's filing.
Roughly 250 billionaires in California would be affected by the proposed one-time tax, and Zuckerberg's wealth is put at $246 billion. Zuckerberg takes an annual salary of $1, and many wealthy people reduce their tax bills by borrowing against their shares. He bought a home in Florida in February. The proposal could be challenged in court even if voters approve it. The new share structure gives him a way to raise cash for taxes while keeping control of Meta's decisions.
The Justice Department on Wednesday dropped its appeals of two court rulings from June that struck down Trump administration restrictions on Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF). The program cancels the education debt of government and nonprofit employees after 10 years of service and 120 monthly loan payments. The rejected rule would have let the education secretary disqualify employers, not individuals, engaged in activities deemed to have a "substantial illegal purpose". With the appeals dropped, the current PSLF rules remain in place. Daniel Zibel, chief counsel at the advocacy group Student Defense, which represented plaintiffs in one of the cases, welcomed the outcome.
“This is a significant victory for millions of Americans who have dedicated their careers to public service”
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Meta says Mark Zuckerberg agreed to live in California for eight years under a share structure tied to his residence, as Proposition 40's one-time billionaire tax heads to a November 2026 vote.
AI text based on reports by Wired, Washington Post, POLITICO and other publishers. Published .