Hugely profitable companies pay more to CEOs than to Uncle Sam
Now isn’t this special?
According to the Institute of Policy Studies, a liberal think tank, 25 of the country’s 100 highest-paid CEOs were paid more personally than their corporations paid in federal income taxes last year. (The corporations in question made, on average, a profit of $1.9 billion each.)
If you believe many conservatives, that’s pretty amazing. After all, corporate taxes in America are allegedly sky high, so the fact that so many profitable companies somehow managed to pay their CEOs even more than they paid Uncle Sam — well, that’s really saying something.
“In 2009, we calculate, major corporate CEOs took home 263 times the pay of America’s average workers. Last year, this gap leaped to 325-to-1. Among the nation’s top firms, the S&P 500, CEO pay last year averaged $10,762,304, up 27.8 percent over 2009.”
Average CEO pay among the S&P 500 up 28 percent in a year. Tough times. And again, that’s not the high-performers, the CEOs who did something special. The average CEO got a 28 percent pay hike last year.
And how did those companies end up paying so little in taxes? The IJS helps explain:
“No tax-dodging strategy over recent years has filled U.S. corporate coffers more rapidly than the offshoring of corporate activity to tax havens in low- or no-tax jurisdictions. Eighteen of the 25 firms highlighted in this study operate subsidiaries in offshore tax haven jurisdictions. The firms, all combined, had 556 tax haven subsidiaries last year….
How do tax havens work? One common corporate accounting technique, “transfer pricing,” helps corporations shift profits offshore. Technology and drug companies regularly open shell companies — in tax havens — that hold their intellectual property rights. They then charge their U.S.-based operations inflated amounts for the use of these rights. These inflated costs get deducted off U.S. taxes. The overseas tax haven profits go un- or lightly taxed. Adding insult to injury, a coalition of corporate tax dodgers is now asking Congress to reward their tax avoidance with a deeply discounted 5 percent tax rate if they bring these funds back home where many of them started.”
These are American companies — corporations that are based here in the United States because they know that locating here maximizes their profits. They want all of the advantages of being American, meanwhile pretending that a lot of their operations are located on some little Caribbean island.
Personally, I think I’m going to open an offshore branch of Jay Bookman and have my paycheck sent there. I mean, why not? I’m a person, corporations are persons. If they can do it, I can do it too, right?
Well, there is one difference. As the IJS notes,”the 25 firms highlighted in this study spent a combined total of more than $150 million on lobbying and campaign contributions last year.” In contrast, I didn’t spend a dime.
In fact, 20 of the companies in question spent more money “lobbying lawmakers than they paid in corporate taxes. Eighteen gave more to the political campaigns of their favorite candidates than they paid to the IRS in taxes.”
You get what you pay for.
– Jay Bookman
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
982 comments Add your comment
Adam
August 31st, 2011
1:30 pm
Zap: Wonder how long one person can blog while “working.”
You mean you’re not timing yourself?
Logical Dude
August 31st, 2011
1:31 pm
US in UK says : 4.6% is MORE THAN 4.2%
That should say “4.6% is GREATER THAN 4.2%”
You know, for clarity’s sake.
Joe Mama
August 31st, 2011
1:31 pm
Zap — “Oh I forgot, you all “know” each other and hang out all day on a blog.”
Not at all. It’s called “reading is fundamental.”
Emphasis on “fun” and “mental,” Zap.
Joe Mama
August 31st, 2011
1:32 pm
Zap — “Working late to blog? Your bosses must love you.”
They’re quite happy with my performance. Not that it’s — as your ideological compatriots have been saying today — any of your business.
Adam
August 31st, 2011
1:33 pm
DDR@ 1:22p
Zap Rowsdower
August 31st, 2011
1:33 pm
“Not at all. It’s called “reading is fundamental.”
My bad, I haven’t been hanging out here long enough to know UK’s family history.
Granny Godzilla
August 31st, 2011
1:33 pm
Zap
You are male? Really?
getalife
August 31st, 2011
1:33 pm
The market is up so the wealth care party is doing a heck of a job.
They do not need any help.
Zap Rowsdower
August 31st, 2011
1:34 pm
“They’re quite happy with my performance. Not that it’s — as your ideological compatriots have been saying today — any of your business.”
Ah, so we’re now playing the contradiction game.
Adam
August 31st, 2011
1:34 pm
Joe Mama: Then again, whether she’s married or not really isn’t germane to the discussion, is it?
What post of Zap’s have you seen that’s germane to the discussion AT ALL?
DebbieDoRight
August 31st, 2011
1:34 pm
No, because I’m not gay.
Thank God!! Now you can save yourself for the woman of your dreams!
Joe Mama
August 31st, 2011
1:35 pm
Zap — “My bad, I haven’t been hanging out here long enough to know UK’s family history.”
You could always *ask* instead of leaping to conclusions and making attempts at insulting her.
DawgDad
August 31st, 2011
1:36 pm
No, Debbie, my comment was NOT revisionist history. I never said I approved of everything Bush and the Republicans did, and I tend to agree with the specific points you made. But you are wrong, the GOP Congress did NOT rubberstamp everything, and with a Republican Congress we (Republican base) were able to forestall Bush’s catastrophic immigration reform proposals, Dubai ports, etc.
Problem with the GOP politicians under Bush is they got greedy, like most politicians do. They spent like drunken — liberals. As a result they and the libs now have a growing Tea Party faction within the GOP base to contend with, and a renewed sense of economic direction deriving from the voice of the people.
getalife
August 31st, 2011
1:36 pm
zap will be zapped .
Granny Godzilla
August 31st, 2011
1:36 pm
Zap
I don’t believe you.
Anybody here think Zap is really male?
Joe Mama
August 31st, 2011
1:36 pm
Zap — “Ah, so we’re now playing the contradiction game.”
I’m pretty sure that *you* have been playing it all day long. I’m not.
DebbieDoRight
August 31st, 2011
1:37 pm
Sorry about your p*nis
Then mine would say, “What p#nis…..oh that! You call THAT a pe#nis?
Just kidding…………
Jefferson
August 31st, 2011
1:37 pm
I’m from the tribe that belives private companies should have less regulations than public companies in regards to profit. Profits belong to the owners, not the managers which all a CEO is anyway.
Zap Rowsdower
August 31st, 2011
1:38 pm
“I don’t believe you.”
I don’t care what you believe, cupcake. Why, because you don’t know me and I don’t know you and I’d love to keep it that way.
Zap Rowsdower
August 31st, 2011
1:38 pm
“One of my friends would say, at this point, to Zap: Sorry about your p*nis!”
Odd that Adam is interested in my manhood. It’s also interesting that I have about 5 bloggers who keep posting comments about me.
Joe Mama
August 31st, 2011
1:38 pm
DDR — “Then mine would say, “What p#nis…..oh that! You call THAT a pe#nis?”
As the old joke goes, the disappointed young woman asks her boyfriend “and just WHO do you think you’re going to satisfy with THAT?”
And he replies, “me.”
Joe Mama
August 31st, 2011
1:40 pm
Zap — “Odd that Adam is interested in my manhood. It’s also interesting that I have about 5 bloggers who keep posting comments about me.”
You’re today’s blog chew-toy.
Left wing management
August 31st, 2011
1:40 pm
AmVet: “LWM, to his credit NY mayor Michael Bloomberg is going to allow NO politicians or clergy to pollute the September 11 10th anniversary ceremony.”
In my utopia, clergy and politicians — of the current stripe — would fear to show their faces in public for fear of an early date with the guillotine, 1789-style. Those politicians currently going under the label Independents are ahead of their time by scorning the labels the rest of the scum are happy to don.
Granny Godzilla
August 31st, 2011
1:40 pm
Zap
I don’t care that you don’t care, apple dumpling
I still think you are somebodies maiden aunt.
Adam
August 31st, 2011
1:40 pm
DawgDad: They spent like drunken — liberals
Do you have evidence to support the claim that liberals are the spenders and conservatives aren’t? Because it looks in practice to me like every time the conservatives get the majority, they spend more and tax cut more, skewing the entire process onto the credit card repeatedly. They don’t usually do temporary measures in an emergency either, but see every crisis as a chance to make PERMANENT change, even the fake crises.
Zap Rowsdower
August 31st, 2011
1:41 pm
“You’re today’s blog chew-toy.”
I guess all the folks on here, including you, who get welfare have to have something to do, right Joe?
Granny Godzilla
August 31st, 2011
1:41 pm
Chew toy?
May I suggest fire hydrant?
DebbieDoRight
August 31st, 2011
1:41 pm
Joe Mama –
Zap Rowsdower
August 31st, 2011
1:41 pm
“I don’t care that you don’t care, apple dumpling”
Great, then quit posting to everything I type, cupcake.
Zap Rowsdower
August 31st, 2011
1:43 pm
“May I suggest fire hydrant?”
Well, now we know Grannies little fetishes.
Joe Mama
August 31st, 2011
1:44 pm
Zap — “I guess all the folks on here, including you, who get welfare have to have something to do, right Joe?”
That’s right, Zap. My workfare program requires that I do rehab work with the mentally handicapped or else I have to sleep under a bush. But today, I’m pretty sure I’m getting a bonus.
You’ll be back tomorrow, right?
Thanks to the Lottery Players in Georgia
August 31st, 2011
1:44 pm
I don’t care what you believe, cupcake. Why, because you don’t know me and I don’t know you and I’d love to keep it that way.
I think you do care, Zap.
DebbieDoRight
August 31st, 2011
1:44 pm
They don’t usually do temporary measures in an emergency either, but see every crisis as a chance to make PERMANENT change, even the fake crises.
Terri Schiavo comes to mind. Remember that “stay” that they rushed a vote on and then had Bush to sign it? Yet in the same breath they say they’re about “personal liberty and responsibilities”. Un-Freakin-Believable.
Granny Godzilla
August 31st, 2011
1:46 pm
“Great, then quit posting to everything I type, cupcake.”
Nope….I didn’t listen to the maiden aunts in the old days why start now.
Ya’ really ought not get your girdle in a wad.
Thanks to the Lottery Players in Georgia
August 31st, 2011
1:46 pm
Don’t push your luck Jay. 4-5 of us have the ability to leave this blog to little more than getaclue and granny humping each other all day.
uh huh.
Logical Dude
August 31st, 2011
1:47 pm
Now people people people. . .
As fun as it seems to be, focusing on a person’s body part is not an appropriate part of the conversation.
Unless it’s the brain.
Zap Rowsdower
August 31st, 2011
1:47 pm
“Nope….I didn’t listen to the maiden aunts in the old days why start now.”
Granny needs attention from the nursing home. Can any of you rat voters get off the computer and take her on a walk?
Talking Head
August 31st, 2011
1:47 pm
Zap,
The rats are better at idiotic rambling arguments and will win everytime, see how far off of topic they have gotten you…it’s the only way they can argue.
Joe Mama
August 31st, 2011
1:48 pm
RB — “how are you going to feel if we all decide to stop?”
“Don’t push your luck Jay. 4-5 of us have the ability to leave this blog”
Jay, I think you should call his bluff. Even if the ranters leave, you’ll still get more posts than Kyle Wingfield or Rootin-Tootin Jim Wooten.
Zap Rowsdower
August 31st, 2011
1:48 pm
Logical Dude
It’s pretty sad that Adam and Debbie are obsessed over my manhood.
dbm
August 31st, 2011
1:49 pm
@ stands for decibels
August 31st, 2011
8:06 am
One problem with that article is that it misrepresents Ayn Rand’s views. She does not say that charity is evil. She has explicitly stated that there is nothing wrong with helping others if you can afford it and they are worthy of the help.
When Ayn Rand condemns “altruism”, she is condemning the altruist morality, the idea that we must subordinate our own interests to the interests of others.
Zap Rowsdower
August 31st, 2011
1:49 pm
Talking Head
Well yeah, that’s all they do. Call them out and all 5 of them go into attack mode. It’s pretty sad that they’ve resorted to talking about my manhood. What a sick world these whack jobs live in.
Cupcake
August 31st, 2011
1:49 pm
Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet ….
Granny Godzilla
August 31st, 2011
1:49 pm
RB
We weep into our pillows just thinking of you taking your keyboard and cutting and running.
Thanks to the Lottery Players in Georgia
August 31st, 2011
1:51 pm
What has Zap posted regarding Jay’s topic. His posts look more like the typical Republican’s post to me — nothing related to the topic at hand.
Joe Mama
August 31st, 2011
1:51 pm
Zap — “It’s pretty sad that Adam and Debbie are obsessed over my manhood.”
Not at all; I think it’s really fortunate for you!
Either way, you’re covered for a date for Friday night.
dbm
August 31st, 2011
1:51 pm
@ stands for decibels
August 31st, 2011
8:06 am
I didn’t notice any acknowledgement in that article that government operates by physical force. Perhaps I didn’t read carefully enough. Can you point out something I missed?
Zap Rowsdower
August 31st, 2011
1:52 pm
Joe Mama
I’m taken. Like I told UK, match.com is ready when they are.
Jay
August 31st, 2011
1:53 pm
RB, it’s a free country. If you can do better elsewhere, go right ahead.
Two other points: Back off the personal attacks, everyone.
And fresh sheets.
Joe Mama
August 31st, 2011
1:53 pm
Zap — “I’m taken. Like I told UK, match.com is ready when they are.”
Tease.
Jay
August 31st, 2011
1:59 pm
Discuss the issues, rather than other bloggers, is the main rule, Zap. And yes, things did a bit out of control at the end of that previous thread, but you were not exactly the blameless victim in that.
BADA BING
August 31st, 2011
2:12 pm
1990s………It’s the Economy,Stupid
2010s……..It’s the Lack of an Economy, Stupid
Billybob
August 31st, 2011
2:28 pm
jay, 8:04
trying to brand someone else a racist like you tried to do to me with nothing more than you just saying it………pathetic and another sign that you and the radical left is hanging on by a thread and the more you hang on the funnier you get ‘homey……
Adam
August 31st, 2011
2:36 pm
I admit, I WAS wondering how far I could push that envelope. Luckily I don’t see what I can get away with and then continue to try to get away with it after I know.
Jay
August 31st, 2011
2:36 pm
BillyBob, unless you’re masquerading under another name, the 8:04 had nothing to do with you.
Billybob
August 31st, 2011
2:43 pm
jay,
you are right, the 8:04 had nothing to do with me, but it has everything to do with exposing who you and the radical left ARE and the techniques that you and your ilk employ to try to character assasinate anyone who doesn’t agree with you…..exposed much……pace yourself my friend it’s going to be a long year for you sir…..
Billybob
August 31st, 2011
2:47 pm
I am a falcons fan and i’ve called the falcons the coons’ for short for years…..do you have a problem with that? please share my friend…….
Billybob
August 31st, 2011
2:57 pm
Political Correctness race-baiting/race-politics by the left no longer shuts up your opponents bookman………liberal false media templates have been exposed and continue to be exposed by people like me……i call you on your words, why did you brand me a racist months ago based on nothing and why do you question calling the falcons the coons’? speak up my friend…….
Billybob
August 31st, 2011
2:59 pm
jay,
no answer here will speak volumes to all the people who post on your blog on a daily basis bookman………and help enlighten many sir….
Jay
August 31st, 2011
3:00 pm
BillyBob, if the shoe fits, wear it.
If it doesn’t, leave it for somebody else.
Your ranting doesn’t exactly add to your credibility.
Jay
August 31st, 2011
3:01 pm
You are exposing things, you are correct. Just not the things you think you’re exposing.
Billybob
August 31st, 2011
3:10 pm
let’s see…..you don’t respond to branding me a racist and then you say i am ranting and then you imply i am exposing things about myself to others…….so you don’t address anything i’ve said and distance yourself from your own words……just as i expected sir…..you have nothing…….except meaningless misdirection and dodging my legitimate issue created by your own words…….exposing your ilk is fun jay….see you again soon lib
Jay
August 31st, 2011
3:12 pm
BillyBob, ranting is not a recommended form of rebuttal to charges of ranting.
Billybob
August 31st, 2011
3:20 pm
Jay,
You falsely claim i am ranting when i am just talking……and then you change the subject to ranting and giving me a tutorial on the correct ways to rebut ideas without ranting is comical and has nothing to do with my issue………you are talking in circles and still haven’t answered my two simple questions….so when you are ready to do that please respond to them……anything else is meaningless and shows all here who and what jay bookman is about……
TruthBe
August 31st, 2011
3:22 pm
Democrats and their owners the Fatcats on wallstreet are the ones not paying their taxes. Just look into Obama’s administration for the crooks and criminals that don’t pay their tax bills. And Obama’s good buddy Warren Buffett and his company are 10 years behind in the taxes owned to the Government. Obama gave away Goldman Sachs to Warren Buffet in a insiders deal. Democrats = Corruption.
SwedeAtlanta
August 31st, 2011
3:44 pm
Truthbe = Falsehood
What are your facts to support your assertions? You are like all the other mindless parrots that chirp out what they hear on Faux News or other totally unreliable source.
Remember it was the Republics that gave no-bid contracts to Cheney’s buddies at Halliburton. Talk about sheer and utter greed and corruption.
What about the teabagger party spokesman from Illinois that is behind over $100K in his child support?
redneckbluedog
August 31st, 2011
4:03 pm
Tommy Maddox
August 31st, 2011
7:57 am
What has a CEO asked you to do lately?
——————————————————————
Vote for him some more tax cuts and deregulations so he can get 50% of the US wealth instead of 40% and run the economy off a cliff like in 2008…..
Billybob
August 31st, 2011
4:03 pm
truthbe and swedeatlanta,
you are both right……power corrupts people on both sides of the aisle which has led to the destruction of one civilization after another throughout history…….thus, limiting the power of the federal gov’t and promoting the power of the states and ultimately the individual would seem to make sense on many different levels………welcome to true conservatism people, this is what will lead us out of the mess that the dems and repubs have gotten us in at the moment……
redneckbluedog
August 31st, 2011
4:08 pm
Tommy Maddox
August 31st, 2011
7:57 am
What has a CEO asked you to do lately?
———————————————————————
Vote to get rid of unions and the minimum wage…..vote to defund the EPA so they can push bisphenol A in food and beverage cans….Just ask Atlanta’s own Coca-Cola….Let them become a monopoly again (ATT)…..Give up pensions and insurance, so stockholders can make a nickel…Not get mad when they dump a bunch of oil in the Gulf of Mexico or a bunch of fly-ash in the Clinch River….Not get mad when they move their business to Ireland and Switzerland….Let them drill for oil in the Everglades and ANWR……Transport nuclear waste across the country…..Let kids take guns to school…..WOW…This list is getting quite long….And I haven’t even started in on the Koch brothers…:-)….Seems like billionares wouldn’t be so “high maintenance”…..
SwedeAtlanta
August 31st, 2011
4:14 pm
Billybob, I would not support promoting the power of the states if it means a state like Georgia. The people under the Golden Dome have demonstrated a complete lack of competence. I would rather have a Girl Scout troop (no offense to them) running Georgia than the corrupt Deal-making governor we have and the slime under the state capitol building.
redneckbluedog
August 31st, 2011
4:16 pm
Tommy Maddox
August 31st, 2011
7:57 am
What has a CEO asked you to do lately?
———————————————————————-
Pay money to carry a bag on an airplane…Bail them out when they made bad investments…Vote to increase defense spending during very high deficits……
Jay
August 31st, 2011
4:22 pm
Truthbe, if you attack other bloggers, you will be gone.
Capice?
TruthBe
August 31st, 2011
4:30 pm
Jay I was responsing to what SwedeAtlanta said to me. If you want us to play fair then be fair and say something to the lefty’s when they attack us first. thank you.Truthbe
SwedeAtlanta
August 31st, 2011
4:42 pm
Truthbe, I wasn’t attacking you. I was simply pointing out that you make broad assertions that appear to be the parroting of what I hear when my tv scanning or radio tuning passes the right-wing blogosphere without any facts to support them.
I then provided specific examples of corruption (no-bid contracts to companies with historic ties to the U.S. Vice President) and the hypocrisy of a teaparty heavyweight that talks about people that don’t pay any taxes, etc. but is over $100K behind in his child support.
I try very hard to challenge the views of other bloggers. Now my views of politicians are not always so kind as my view that we have alot of “slime” under the golden dome.
TruthBe
August 31st, 2011
5:33 pm
SwedeAtlanta you did attack me, read your post. Your apology accepted.
FACTS: Many democrats in the Obama adminstration have been tax cheats. Even our Sec.of Treasury Geiter who has the IRS under his authority is a tax cheat. Rep.Charlie Rangel Dem.NY who wrote and made into law our IRS tax codes is a tax cheat.Obama has lied to the American People over and over. For example Obamacare, illegal emigration, Wars, Troops Comming Home, Tax increases, etc…Where do you want to go. This adminstration is the most dishonest and corrupt adminstration in ALL American History. Many of the big money Democrat supporters are tax cheats.
deegee
August 31st, 2011
5:34 pm
And these highly qualified, high risk taking CEOs would love to invest more money in the US if it weren’t for so much “uncertainty.” I don’t think the American people truly understand how badly they have been screwed by the accountants and finance people that run today’s American corporations. When innovators and entrepreneurs were running corporate America the only uncertainty that existed was how they were going to produce a sufficient amount to meet the demand. Those days are long gone. The bean counter in charge couldn’t care less what their company makes. All they are interested in making is money.
dbm
August 31st, 2011
7:29 pm
@ deegee
August 31st, 2011
5:34 pm
There is much more uncertainty now than there was before because government is much more controlling and pervasive than it was before, and the government’s rules keep changing with the winds of politics.
deegee
August 31st, 2011
9:43 pm
dbm, when did you get interested in politics? Yesterday?
Latest Property Tax Rates In Massachusetts News | Tax Rates 2011
September 1st, 2011
12:26 am
[...] a deeply discounted 5 percent tax rate if they bring these funds back home … Read more on Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog) Tags: Latest, Massachusetts, News, Property, [...]
BP
September 1st, 2011
2:36 am
Jay
August 31st, 2011
8:50 am
Did not see a response to your ?. Simply put the Democrats did not pay for, nor contribute to that exemption and the good Republicans take exception to that fact.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
September 1st, 2011
1:37 pm
“In fact, 20 of the companies in question spent more money ‘lobbying lawmakers than they paid in corporate taxes. Eighteen gave more to the political campaigns of their favorite candidates than they paid to the IRS in taxes.’” And people wonder how these economic realities come into being? He who funds who writes the law, writes the law. For an interesting interview with Chuck Collins, co-author of the IPS report, check out Democracy Now!’s coverage: The notion that corporations are rewarding tax dodging should be nothing new. By law and structure, they are required to maximize short-term profit. As a method of cost-cutting, tax avoidance is perfectly understandable. Still, as Chuck Collins–co-author of the report–points out, corporations are not “sharing responsibility for addressing our nation’s fiscal challenges.” Luckily for all of us, they’re overwhelmingly responsible for addressing the fiscal challenges of political campaigns. Democracy Now! interviewed Chuck Collins about the report this morning: http://www.democracynow.org/2011/9/1/as_economy_lags_new_study_reveals
thin lizzy1
September 5th, 2011
10:15 pm
Google corporations not paying taxes,hundreds of articles stating around 60% of corporations pay no tax. All lies right?Why do so many people believe we have to kiss the rear end of business and let them pay nothing?If you benefit from our society,such as the national defense,the police and fire,roads and the legal system why shouldnt you participate in supporting it?We’ve turned big business into God like status and it’s ridiculous.