California Billionaires Could Save Millions in Tax With One Key Property Change

California’s billionaire tax has sparked an exodus of some of the state’s wealthiest residents, who have relocated their personal and professional assets in a bid to avoid the one-time levy on their fortunes. But for those who remain, there is one loophole in the proposed legislation that could help them to save millions if the tax is brought into effect.

According to the California Billionaire Tax Act, anyone with a net worth of $1.1 billion or more who was residing in the Golden State as of Jan. 1, 2026, will be subject to a 5% tax on the total of all their global assets.

However, the calculation of their personal fortune will not include any real property that is held directly or by a revocable trust, although properties that are registered to a limited liability company or another business entity will be subject to the tax.

Still, this means that for prolific California-based property collectors like Mark Zuckerberg or Sam Altman, there is an opportunity to shave at least $100 million—or more—from the total amount that could be taxed by the state.

In the case of Meta founder Zuckerberg, 41, who lives in Palo Alto, CA, with his wife, Priscilla Chan, this means that close to $250 million could be shaved off his $238 billion net worth, while OpenAI CEO Altman, 41, would see his fortune reduced by about $125 million.

For Zuckerberg, this would save him around $12.5 million in tax, while San Francisco resident Altman would shave around $6.25 million off his bill.

Both Altman and Zuckerberg boast extensive property portfolios in California and beyond.

For the Facebook creator, his primary residence has long been an enormous Palo Alto compound, which he spent several years compiling and which is now estimated to be worth over $110 million.

Zuckerberg and Chan began gobbling up homes in the area back in 2011, when the Meta CEO bought his first dwelling in Crescent Park for $7 million in what was reportedly his first residential real estate deal.

At the time, the social media tycoon—who founded Facebook from inside his Harvard University dorm room—was worth $13.5 billion. But as his fortune has ballooned, so too have his property holdings and his presence in the once-“idyllic” community.

In the years since buying that first home, which still serves as the heart of his enormous compound, Zuckerberg has purchased 10 other dwellings in an apparent bid to create a kind of property buffer around his main abode.

The first of those additional homes, which sits directly behind his primary dwelling, was purchased for $4.8 million in 2012. He then bought the home adjacent to his main residence for $10.5 million in September 2013, before snapping up two more properties behind that first home in October 2013 for $14 million and $14.5 million, respectively.

However, records show that the properties are currently registered to LLCs, which would mean they will be considered taxable assets if the billionaire levy is put into action.

Zuckerberg did spark speculation that he was planning to flee California earlier this year, when he snapped up a $170 million megamansion in Florida, however he has yet to reveal whether he plans to make this is primary residence moving forward.

Meanwhile Altman’s home base is located in San Francisco, where he also owns several adjacent properties, including a historic six-bedroom, seven-bathroom Russian Hill mansion that he purchased for $27 million in 2020—before later becoming embroiled in a bitter and lengthy legal battle with its developer, Greg Malin, and his company, Troon Pacific, over claims that the home was “plagued by shoddy construction.”

The tech mogul—who has an estimated net worth of $3.3 billion—later expanded his holdings in the city with the purchase of three adjacent dwellings, which were all bought together for a total of $38.5 million.

Much like Zuckerberg’s California properties, however, Altman’s homes are all currently registered to an LLC and it’s unclear whether he has plans to change this ownership structure to reduce the tax he could potentially face.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who is worth $176 billion, is another California-based billionaire who could save a pretty penny on the tax, although his $53 million property portfolio would only trim about $2.7 million from the amount he would be forced to pay.

In 2017, the tech tycoon splashed over $38 million for a sprawling mansion in San Francisco’s Gold Coast neighborhood, which serves as his home base, although he also owns another property in Los Altos, just 15 miles west of Nvidia’s headquarters, which he purchased for $6.9 million in 2003.

But records show that those properties are also registered under LLCs.

All three billionaire tech moguls also own properties in Hawaii—although Altman’s is on the market for $49 million.

Zuckerberg has an enormous estate on the island of Kauai that is worth an estimated $365 million and spans a staggering 2,300 acres, while Huang owns a property on the south side of Maui, inside the exclusive Wailea Resort.

The home features seven bedrooms and was built in 2008. He paid $7.8 million for the abode, again using an LLC for the transaction.

Of the billionaires who remain in California, Huang is the only one who has publicly stated his commitment to the state, telling Bloomberg Television in January: “We chose to live in Silicon Valley and whatever taxes, I guess, they would like to apply so be it. I’m perfectly fine with it, it never crossed my mind once.”

However, even those who have already fled the state, including Larry Ellison, Larry Page, and Sergey Brin, might have seen their bills dramatically reduced as a result of their real estate holdings—had they not already high-tailed it to pastures new (and tax-free).

In Brin’s case, he moved his primary residence and his personal finances to Nevada, where he purchased a sprawling $42 million mansion on the shores of Lake Tahoe in December 2025, just ahead of the Jan. 1 deadline.

He later compared California to the socialist Soviet Union when asked about his move, telling The New York Times: “I fled socialism with my family in 1979 and know the devastating, oppressive society it created in the Soviet Union. I don’t want California to end up in the same place.”