Netflix, Tesla & more | The U.S. companies spending more on executive compensation than federal tax

Ford, Tesla, and Netflix are among those named in a report detailing America’s largest companies that spend more on executive remuneration than on federal tax payments.

The report, from Analysis by Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) and the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), identifies 35 firms whose senior executives earned more in compensation than the employers spent on net tax bills between 2018 and 2022.

A further 29 firms paid more to their top five executives in at least two of the five years in that period.

Ford Motor, for example, spent $355million on executive pay over the five years but only $121million on tax payments. Netflix’s tax bill for the period was $236million but it spent $652million on executive compensation. Staggeringly, Tesla, for spent $2.5 billion on executive pay, and received $1million in tax refunds.