Mark Cuban Would Build a Highly Profitable Company, Reward Employees Generously if His Tax Rate Fell to Zero

Billionaire investor Mark Cuban has revealed his blueprint for a corporate utopia where every worker becomes a millionaire, sparked by a hypothetical zero tax rate.

The Shark Tank star admitted that while he does not believe a total lack of taxation is a good idea, it would provide the ultimate fuel for employee wealth creation.

Cuban claims he would focus every resource on building a 'stinkingly profitable' company. His logic is simple: if the tax burden vanishes, the profit engine accelerates. Because his employees are also owners, they would see their bank accounts swell every time the company succeeds.

'I'll tell you exactly what I would do. If taxes went to zero, and I don't think that's a good idea, but if taxes did go to zero, I would invest in the company to make it as big and profitable. So stinking profitable, that because the employees are owners, whenever I got paid, they would get paid too,' Cuban had stated in a 2019 GQ clip in response to fan questions.

The fan wondered whether companies would pay employees more or keep the difference if taxes disappeared. In the case of zero taxes, Cuban believes he would not directly hand out cash after the company generates profits, but would structure the business so that employees are linked to the profits.

'If you remember what I said about Broadcast.com, when we sold the company, out of 330 employees, 300 own shares of stock and became millionaires,' he said. When Yahoo acquired Broadcast.com for $5.7 billion, more than 90% of employees held equity, meaning the payout extended beyond senior management.

Those employees saw gains on paper amid rising stock prices, but Cuban also ensured they received cash payouts tied to the company's sale. Giving so many workers access to company ownership was unheard of back then, attracted criticism, but also created hundreds of millions of dollars in wealth from a single transaction.

Cuban implemented the same strategy for every business he sold after Broadcast.com. 'In every business I've sold, I've paid out bonuses to every employee that was there for more than a year,' he wrote X in 2024.

'Broadcast.com, 300 out of 330 employees became millionaires. Microsolutions, I paid out 20% to our 80 employees. HDNet wasn't as big, but it paid out about 20% of what I got to employees. Mavs wasn't a total exit, but we paid out more than $35M to employees.'

'When you get paid by the hour, sure, the more you make, the better things are. But if you own stock in a company, then the better that company does, the better you do,' he said. 'The only way to get out of that mode of getting paid by the hour or getting paid a salary is if the company grows as big as it possibly can.'

Cuban Urges All Companies to Award Stock Options

In late 2025, Cuban recommended that companies should award stock options to their employees to drive long-term business success. He believes that stock options should extend beyond CEOs to employees, so they have a stake in their company's success.

Cuban explained that billionaire wealth has increased by $33 trillion since 2015 because 'the stock market has gone straight up.'

'You know who is funding the increase, particularly lately? Retail investors. 401Ks,' Cuban wrote on X. 'The better question is, why are we not giving incentives to companies to require them to give shares in their companies to all employees, at the same percentage of cash earnings as the CEO?'

The billionaire proposed a system in which stock options are awarded at the same percentage of salary across the company. It means that if a CEO receives stock options worth 100% of their salary, then all employees would also receive stock options equal to 100% of their own pay.

The AI Frontier: Rewarding Productivity Over Hours

Cuban's vision for the future of the American workforce extends into the rapidly evolving field of artificial intelligence. In a recent statement on X, he predicted that the AI revolution would allow companies to rethink the standard working week. He argues that AI agents will handle routine tasks, enabling a reduction in working hours of 1 hour a day or 5 hours a week, without any loss in pay.

'Smart, bigger companies will enable their employees to create and use AI agents and reduce their working hours,' Cuban wrote on X. He believes the world is moving away from rewarding hours and toward a model that prizes productivity. This shift, combined with his push for Mark Cuban's stock options, could fundamentally redefine the relationship between capital and labour.

As the debate over a potential zero tax rate continues, Cuban remains focused on the mechanics of the payout. He believes that the survival of the American dream depends on shifting from a culture of employees to a nation of owners.