Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick moved his primary residence to Texas before the start of 2026, potentially avoiding a $180 million liability under California’s proposed billionaire tax.
California voters will decide next Tuesday whether to approve Proposition 40, a one-off levy of 5% on the worldwide net worth of billionaires whose primary residence was in the state on January 1 2026.
Kalanick, whose wealth is estimated at $3.6 billion, said he moved to Austin on December 18 last year. “Just to be clear, on December 18, I moved to Texas,” he told TBPN in March. “I don’t know what’s so specific about December 18, but let’s just say it’s prior to January.”
He added: “Yeah, so I’m a primary resident of Texas.”
The move was not entirely abrupt. Kalanick said he had owned a home on Lake Austin for about five years, attracted by the lake and his enthusiasm for waterskiing. He now runs Atoms, a robotics company formerly known as CloudKitchens.
In June, he posted a video showing what he called his “5-minute jet ski commute” across Lake Austin to the company’s office.
Kalanick’s relocation came amid an exodus of wealthy Californians before the tax’s proposed cut-off date. A working paper by Stanford economists Benjamin Jaros and Joshua Rauh said billionaires who publicly confirmed their departures took about $540 billion in wealth out of the state between the measure’s filing in October 2025 and January 1.
That figure represents nearly 30% of the wealth that could have been reached by the measure, although the research counted only departures that had been publicly confirmed.
Proposition 40 would exclude real estate owned directly and most retirement accounts from its calculation. If approved, the tax would be payable in 2027, with taxpayers allowed to spread payments over five years for an additional charge.
Ninety per cent of the proceeds would be directed towards public healthcare services, including Medi-Cal. Supporters have estimated that the measure could raise about $100 billion, while the Stanford economists put the figure closer to $30 billion after accounting for billionaire departures.
California billionaire tax faces further obstacles
The measure could also face competition from two other proposals on the ballot. Proposition 41 would cancel any new state tax introduced after January 1 whose revenue was exempt from California’s spending limit, while Proposition 42 would prohibit new taxes on personal property other than real estate, as well as certain retroactive taxes.
If either proposal receives more votes than Proposition 40, courts could ultimately decide whether it invalidates the wealth tax. A September survey found that 52% of likely voters supported Proposition 40, compared with 51% for Proposition 41 and 54% for Proposition 42.
The issue has not divided voters strictly along party lines. California governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, opposes the tax, while Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Ro Khanna have been among its most prominent supporters.
Approval would likely trigger a legal challenge, with opponents given 60 days to contest the measure. Its retrospective January 1 residency date is expected to be a particular focus.
For Kalanick, the outcome would depend on whether California tax authorities accept that Texas was genuinely his home before the deadline. The measure gives them broad powers to audit billionaires they believe should have paid.
