Corporations Pay Their CEOs More Than They Pay In Taxes

When it comes to fleecing taxpayers while overpaying executives, Tesla is hardly alone. A new report we co-authored for the Institute for Policy Studies and Americans for Tax Fairness analyzes executive pay data for some of the country’s most notorious corporate tax dodgers.

What did we find? In addition to Tesla, 34 other large and profitable U.S. firms — including household names like Ford, Netflix, and T-Mobile — paid less in federal income taxes between 2018 and 2022 than they paid their top five executives.

Another 29 profitable corporations paid their top executives more than they paid Uncle Sam in at least two of the five years of the study period.