CEO pay

[d-ray657]

The following story appeared in the Kansas City Star. So this is why we need to lighten up on corporate taxes.

Corporations richly reward CEOs for tax avoidance, group reports
By DIANE STAFFORD
The Kansas City Star

Twenty-five of the 100 highest-paid CEOs in the United States last year took home more pay than their corporations paid in federal corporate income taxes, according to a report released today.

The annual report on executive compensation, published by the Institute for Policy Studies, said the average CEO compensation at Fortune 500 companies rose nearly 28 percent, and the ratio of CEO pay to that of the average worker increased.

The research organization, which advocates for social justice, said the 25 “tax-dodging” CEOs averaged $16.7 million in pay last year. The report said most of their companies had substantial profits yet collected an average of $413 million each in refunds from the Internal Revenue Service.

Researchers said 18 of the 25 firms had subsidiaries in offshore tax havens, for a combined total of 556 tax haven subsidiaries.

“Of the 25 companies that paid their CEO more than Uncle Sam, 20 also spent more on lobbying lawmakers than they paid in corporate taxes,” according to the institute. “Eighteen gave more to the political campaigns of their favorite candidates than they paid to the IRS in taxes.”

Each year the institute also measures the pay gap between top-paid CEOs and their workforces. Looking at CEO compensation for the S&P 500, the average pay was $10.8 million in 2010, a 27.8 percent increase over 2009, the report said. Based on that comparison, “the gap between CEO and average U.S. worker pay rose from 263-to-1 in 2009 to 325-to-1 last year,” the institute reported.

Regards,

D-Ray