CEOs' Paychecks Bigger than Federal Tax Bills for 25 U.S. Companies

Twenty-five of America's richest CEOs took home more pay last year than their companies paid in federal income taxes, according to a new report from the Institute for Policy Studies.

That list includes Verizon's Ivan Seidenberg, who was paid $18.1 million while 13,000 workers were laid off. How much did Verizon pay Uncle Sam on the company's $11.9 billion in pre-tax earnings? Zilch. In fact, Verizon got a $705 million tax refund.

The 25 companies include General Electric, Boeing, eBay, banks and insurance companies, and like Verizon, many of them paid no federal income taxes at all. Those that did, still paid their CEOs more.

Most of the companies also spent more on lobbying and on political candidates than they paid the IRS. Click here to read the full report or go to www.ips-dc.org.