IPS Study named 25 US Companies that paid CEOs more than they paid Taxes

Acording to a pay study from the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), a left-leaning Washington think tank released on 31 August 2011, twenty-five of the 100 highest paid US CEOs earned more in 2010 than their companies paid in federal income tax. The study observed that the companies spent more on lobbying than they did on taxes.

Compensation for the 25 CEOs with pay surpassing corporate taxes averaged $16.7 million according to the study.
IPS also compared CEO pay to current US taxes paid, excluding foreign and state and local taxes that may have been paid, as well as deferred taxes which can often be far larger than current taxes paid. IPS raised the question as to why CEO pay and corporate profits were skyrocketing while worker pay stagnated and unemployment remained unacceptably high.

The report discussed the extent to which US tax code encouraged the growing disparities. The tax breaks of the US companies  even though they come from different industries fall into two primary areas.

Two-thirds of the firms studied werwe found to keep their taxes low by utilising offshore subsidiaries in tax havens such as Bermuda, Singapore and Luxembourg. The remaining companies benefited from accelerated depreciation.

The study found the gap between CEO and worker pay widened last year to 325 times the average worker's pay in 2010 from 263 times in 2009.

Among the companies topping the IPS list:

•    eBay whose chief executive, John Donahoe, made $12.4 million, but which reported a $131 million refund on its 2010 current U.S. taxes.
•    Boeing, which paid CEO Jim McNerney $13.8 million, sent in $13 million in federal income taxes, and spent $20.8 million on lobbying and campaign spending.
•    General Electric, where CEO Jeff Immelt earned $15.2 million in 2010, while the company got a $3.3 billion federal refund and invested $41.8 million in its own lobbying and political campaigns.