Study: CEOs and Incorporated Americans Sure Benefiting From Tax Code They Wrote

Look, you guys, the Romneys WANT to release more tax returns to you people, but if they do, guess what will happen? We can tell you EXACTLY what will happen: a think tank — maybe even a progressive one — will look at the tax returns and then they’ll be all “blah blah, the Romneys paid a lower tax rate than people who make around $40,000 per year ” or “blah blah, here is what is up with ' Mitt’s Magical IRA ’” etc etc, and this would be unacceptable, because it is Mitt's Time . We know this because a “liberal-leaning think tank” released a study claiming that 26 big Incorporated Americans didn’t pay federal taxes and (maybe) used the money to pay CEOs and then sent the rest of the massive sums of money on lavish vacations to the Cayman Islands. See? Transparency just gave them all kinds of ammunition, and we wouldn't want that, would we? No. We wouldn't.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Twenty-six big U.S. companies paid their CEOs more last year than they paid the federal government in tax, according to a study released Thursday by a liberal-leaning think tank.

The study, by the Institute for Policy Studies, said the companies, including AT&T, Boeing and Citigroup, paid their CEOs an average of $20.4 million last year while paying little or no federal tax on ample profits, according to regulatory filings.

Some companies cited in the study said it was misleading. They also said they took advantage of tax deductions and credits designed to free up money for companies to spend in ways that stimulate the economy.

Oh yes. Stimulate the economy. Like, for example, AT&T, who stimulated the economy through eliminating the jobs of 100 wireless operators right before Christmas . Or Kraft, who laid off 1600 employees earlier this year so it could turn into two companies making corn-syrup filled snacks and groceries. Two is always better than one, DUH. See what happens when you let liberals look at your taxes?

Among the "kingpins" [the study] criticized was CEO James McNerney Jr. of Boeing. It said he got $18.4 million in pay last year while his company received a tax refund of $605 million.

The study also laid into Citigroup for paying CEO Vikram Pandit $14.9 million while the bank received a net $144 million in tax benefits.

Eighteen of the 26 companies received cash back or credits to apply against tax in the future, according to the report.

In addition to performance-pay deductions and R&D credits, the report criticized the use of tax havens that allow technology companies, for instance, to assign intellectual-property rights to shell companies in the Cayman Islands, so they can run profits through them and avoid taxes. It noted that 26 companies have a combined 537 subsidiaries in tax-haven countries.

This report can only mean one thing: that we have not sufficiently pleased our corporate overlords until they trickle down on us. When will we ever learn.

 [Associated Press]