The Grossest Executive Perk of All?

Chief executives have found yet another way to take advantage of the corporate money trough, a new report has found.

A Corporate Library study of the recently filed proxy statements of almost 3,300 companies found that 20 percent of the chief executives received additional income to offset the cost of perquisites from aircraft use, housing, country club fees and even entertainment systems.

Also near the top of the list for such personal income tax gross-ups, also labeled as "tax assistance," were spousal travel - the very perk given to Countrywide Financial C.E.O. Angelo Mozilo that sparked the entire study.

Tax-Free C.E.O.'s More egregious examples, from the April issue of Condé Nast Portfolio.

"The sight of Angelo Mozilo defending his request to the board to have the income tax due when his wife traveled for free on the corporate jet paid by the shareholders gave me pause for thought," said Paul Hodgson, senior research associate at the Corporate Library, an independent research firm in Portland, Maine.

"So I decided to find out how common this kind of practice was," he said, so he examined proxy statements filed between February 2007 and February 2008. "Jaded though I am, I have to admit to being surprised at the extent of what I like to call the grossest perk."

The top items that the 657 chief executives received reimbursement for were insurance, aircraft use, relocation, cars, financial planning and spousal travel. A smaller, but lucky, number received gross-ups for income taxes (13), pensions (13) and tax preparation (12).

Some 30 C.E.O.s had their tax bill subsidized for restricted stock awards and/or bonuses. The biggest winner in that area was J. Chad Dreier, chief executive of homebuilder, The Ryland Group.

According to the report, Dreier, who earned almost $49 million in fiscal 2006, received a total of $5,822,177 in tax gross-ups the same year. That included more than $5.75 million in "tax assistance" on the vesting of $6.5 million in restricted stock, according to the report.

Dreier also received tax gross-ups of $23,202 on life insurance, $10,641 on term life insurance premiums, $3,564 for tax assistance and health and fitness costs, and $32,720 for aircraft usage taxes for spousal and family travel corporate travel.

Hodgson said Ryland's filings for 2007 are expected to yield similar results for Dreier.

Even with greater disclosure requirements, companies did not specify the reasons for one-third of the gross-ups - either because they lumped several amounts together or because there was insufficient disclosure, the report noted.

Items do not have to be disclosed unless they are in excess of $10,000, according to the report. Other times, it is impossible to distinguish exactly what was paid - like the Bear Stearns report that its C.E.O. James Cayne received a "filing fee' and an associated tax gross-up of $1,083,883 - but did not separate the two amounts.

While three-fourths of the tax gross-ups were small - less than $35,000 - the total of the payments made by the companies studied was almost $42 million.

The report criticizes such perk gross-ups as reflecting a skewed balance of power - noting "We are sure that many U.S. workers would be grateful if their employers also paid their income tax obligations, but we can think of no other group of employees (apart from expatriates) where such a concept even exists.

Payment of person income taxes for a senior executive, the report concludes, "is as inappropriate as a company loaning an executive money - a practice outlawed by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act."

by Elizabeth Olson

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