CEOs Paid More Than Taxes Billed is a 'Dubious' Conclusion

By Brittney R. Villalva , Christian Post Reporter

August 17, 2012|11:24 am

A recent study by the far left has questioned whether large companies are paying their fair share of taxes. While the results suggest they are not, others believe the research method to be flawed.

The study was conducted by the Institute for Policy Studies and stated that companies were paying their chief executives more than they were paying to Uncle Sam, according to Reuters. It also claims the 26 companies, including Abbott Laboratories (ABT: 65.79, -0.64, -0.96%), AT&T (T: 37.14, -0.10, -0.27%), Boeing (BA: 73.49, -0.15, -0.20%) and Citigroup (C: 28.99, +0.17, +0.59%), paid little to no federal taxes at all.

A Citigroup spokeswoman confirmed that Citi did not pay any federal taxes in 2011 due to substantial losses in 2008 and 2009, however also added that the company had paid an estimated $3.7 billion in federal income taxes from 2000 to 2006. Their 2011 tax refund was estimated at $144 million; CEO Vikram Pandit was paid $14.9 million.

But not all agree with the study, including Elizabeth MacDonald a business journalist who has charged that the findings are based on "dubious assumptions." MacDonald states that the U.S. has the highest combined federal and state tax level in the world at 39.3 percent although she also admits that after loopholes, it is reduced to an average 12.1 percent.

Despite this information, however, MacDonald argues that the study is flawed because it does not have an accurate figure for what companies actually paid in taxes.

"U.S. companies don't fully or clearly disclose their federal tax bills in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. They simply don't have to," MacDonald writes in a Fox report. Without full disclosure "the study is based on lots of math and estimates based on dubious assumptions."

Companies listed in the study also argued that the information was inaccurate. Boeing, for example, stated that the company's federal tax bill amounted to $1.3 billion last year, including deferred tax, not a net credit of $605 million as the study claims.