Kalanick says he moved to Texas before California tax deadline — Fortune
Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick said that he moved from California to Austin, Texas, United States, on December 18, 2025. This happened about two weeks before January 1, 2026, the date from which California’s proposed one-time 5% tax could apply to billionaires whose primary residence was in the state. Fortune reports.
According to the publication’s estimate, Kalanick’s wealth is about $3.6 billion, and the potential tax payment could have reached $180 million. In March, he told TBPN that he had moved to Texas before January and considers the state his primary residence.
House on Lake Austin
The move was not entirely new for Kalanick: he said he had owned a house on Lake Austin, located about 20 minutes from the city, for roughly five years. According to him, he was drawn by the lake and water skiing. In June, Kalanick posted on X a video of his five-minute jet ski route across the lake to the office of Atoms, the robotics company he now leads. It was previously called CloudKitchens.
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According to a working paper by Stanford University economists Benjamin Jaros and Joshua Rau, several billionaires left California between the filing of the initiative in October 2025 and the January 1, 2026 deadline. The authors counted only publicly confirmed moves and estimated that the wealth no longer subject to the state’s potential tax as a result amounted to about $540 billion, nearly 30% of the relevant tax base.
Vote on Proposition 40
Next Tuesday, California voters are set to vote on Proposition 40. The initiative provides for a one-time 5% tax on billionaires’ worldwide net wealth, but excludes real estate they own directly and most retirement accounts. If approved, the tax would have to be paid in 2027, and payments could be spread over five years for an additional fee.
Plans call for 90% of the proceeds to be directed to public health services, including Medi-Cal. Supporters of the initiative estimate its revenue at about $100 billion, while Jaros and Rau, after accounting for billionaires leaving, estimate it at about $30 billion. California tax authorities will also have broad powers to verify whether billionaires who declared a move actually changed their primary residence.
