Elon Musk recently became the first person to post a net worth of $400 billion. Tax laws require foundations to give away 5% of their assets every year. Surely, a man with that kind of fabulous wealth must be a major donor to the arts, medical research, homelessness, or education? Not him.

The New York Times reported that Musk’s foundation has repeatedly failed to meet the 5% mark. It gives only in its own neighborhood and to the private school that Musk intends to create.

The Times reports:

For the third year in a row, Elon Musk’s charitable foundation did not give away enough of its money.

And it did not miss the mark by a small amount.

New tax filings show that the Musk Foundation fell $421 million short of the amount it was required to give away in 2023. Now, Mr. Musk has until the end of the year to distribute that money, or he will be required to pay a sizable penalty to the Internal Revenue Service.

Mr. Musk, in his new role as a leader of what President-elect Donald J. Trump is calling the Department of Government Efficiency, is promising to downsize and rearrange the entire federal government — including the I.R.S. But the tax records show he has struggled to meet a basic I.R.S. rule that is required of all charity leaders, no matter how small or big their foundations.

Mr. Musk’s is one of the biggest. His foundation has more than $9 billion in assets, including millions of shares in Tesla, his electric vehicle company. By law, all private foundations must give away 5 percent of those assets every year. The aim is to ensure that wealthy donors like Mr. Musk use these organizations to help the public instead of simply benefiting from the tax deductions they are afforded…

The I.R.S. appears to be among Mr. Musk’s early targets as a leader of Mr. Trump’s government efficiency initiative. The tax agency serves as the federal government’s charity regulator and thus oversees Mr. Musk’s foundation.

Mr. Musk, who on Wednesday became the first person with a net worth of over $400 billion, has been an unusual philanthropist. He has been critical of the effectiveness of large charitable gifts, and his foundation maintains a minimal, plain-text website that offers very little about its overarching philosophy. That is different from some other large foundations that seek to have national or even worldwide impact by making large gifts to causes like public health, education or the arts.

The Musk Foundation’s largess primarily stays closer to home. The tax filings show that last year the group gave at least $7 million combined to charities near a launch site in South Texas used by Mr. Musk’s company SpaceX.

Mr. Musk’s charity, which he founded in 2002, has never hired paid employees, according to tax filings.

Its three directors — Mr. Musk and two people who work for his family office — all work for free. The filings show they did not spend very much time on the foundation: just two hours and six minutes per week for the past three years.

By giving its foundation Tesla stock, Musk has saved about $2 billion in federal taxes.

Musk gives away as little as possible.

Do you think the IRS might investigate him in the next four years?