IRS Taking a Look at Executives' Pay

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-irs30dec30,1,2523607.story?coll=la-home-business

Spurred by a congressional investigation into executive compensation at Enron Corp., tax authorities for months have been quietly scrutinizing the salaries and fringe benefits of top officers at other big companies.

<snip>

The two areas of special interest are perks such as private planes, housing and deferred compensation plans, and stock option arrangements that may allow for the underpayment of taxes on the gains.

The biggest ticket item is likely to be stock options that were put into trusts and family limited partnerships, allowing executives to transfer the tax liability on the gains to children and organizations that would be in a significantly lower tax bracket than the executive. The IRS has labeled these deals as "listed transactions," which puts companies on notice that tax officials believe the deals to be so abusive that they must be immediately reported to authorities.

Hundreds of such arrangements are believed to have been entered into over the last three years, involving hundreds of millions of dollars in stock gains.

"The amounts are astronomical," said one compensation expert who asked not to be named. "The stock deals were heavily marketed to people with huge stock gains. If you figure that just 10% of the Fortune 500 got into them, you'd be talking about hundreds of millions of dollars in tax."

[Norquist Nemesis]

1. Poor babies.

Not!

[Tansy_Gold]

2. My heart bleeds. . . . .

. . . .purple panther piss.

:puke:


(no offense to purple panthers)

[wickerwoman]

3. $10 says we'll see a new story in the next few days

about the IRS bleeding some poor regular guy with a family (and $50,000 owed in back taxes) over the holidays.

Outrage will ensue and we'll get another call for a kinder, gentler (toothless) IRS. Not that there's much left to begin with after Newt Gingrich got through with them.

[aquart]

4. "Executive compensation" is the scandal of our century.

And those arrogant thieves need a thick boot on their necks if we aren't going to hang them.

[modrepub]

5. While they're at it

why can't they collect on some of the hefty fines they've assessed some of these executives? I read somewhere that there are people who have not payed fines from the Savings and Loan scandles of the 1980s. One guy bragged he hadn't payed his fine and if the IRS did catch up to him he'd settle for pennies on the dollar.

[joeunderdog]

6. Unfortunately, the auditing practices of the IRS

mean that your odds of being audited if you file for EIC are 400% greater than if you make over $200,000. Makes sense to me...:(

[JPace]

7. These executives are so filthy rich....

that they feel no loyalty to the U.S.,
many have already given up their citizenship
and moved to tropical islands where they
live in luxury. They have not interest
in sharing the burdens of the country that
made it possible for them to become zillionairs.

[lostnfound]

8. Gross generalization.

Sure, many may fall in this category, but I do know some execs who are liberal Democrats who DO pay a lot in taxes but who "don't look a gift horse in the mouth" -- if the company you work for offers you deferred compensation or stock options, would you turn them down? Or go out of your way to investigate whether what's being offered is technically kosher with the IRS -- when you have no reason to believe that it isn't?

Not ALL execs are inherently bad and not all are financial geniuses -- some work their way up through operations or other routes.

I'm not saying that I feel sorry for them, but don't rule out that at least some of them are good people, in spite of their success in the corporate world.

[LiberalFighter]

9. That needs to be hit hard

Stashing income into trusts or other safe havens so that it is not taxed? That is criminal!!! And to top it off they got the Bush tax cuts for the rich.