from YES! Magazine:
Putting Corporate Tax Dodging on the Table
In this time of austerity, major corporations are spending more on CEO pay and Congressional lobbying than they're paying the IRS. How we can make them pay up.by Chuck Collins
posted Sep 02, 2011
As the Super Congress eyes trillions in budget cuts that will undermine the quality of life for most Americans, here's a stunning fact to contemplate: Twenty-five hugely profitable U.S. companies paid their CEOs more last year than they paid Uncle Sam in taxes.
That's the key finding of a new Institute for Policy Studies report, Massive CEO Rewards for Tax Dodging, which I co-authored.
The report has been a catalyst to getting more people engaged in street heat and grassroots lobbying to press Congress to stop abuses. After reviewing the report, US Representative Elijah Cummings called for Congressional oversight hearings into excessive compensation and aggressive tax avoidance.
These artful dodgers include the CEOs of Verizon, Boeing, Honeywell, General Electric, International Paper, Prudential, eBay, Bank of New York Mellon, Ford, Motorola, Dow Chemical, and Stanley Black and Decker. Their average annual compensation totaled $16.7 million, well above last year's average of $10.8 million for the CEOs of S&P 500 companies. ..........(more)
The complete piece is at:
http://www.yesmagazine.org/new-economy/putting-corporate-tax-dodging-on-the-table