Law Department Management Blog
In its latest compensation report, in Corp. Counsel, Vol. 14, Aug. 2007, at 80, the author notes that “Since 1993, corporations have been barred from taking tax deductions for any portion of an executive’s salary that exceeds $1 million.”
As general counsel salaries have risen over time and bumped into this tax cap, compensation packages have been shifting to more equity and bonus arrangements. Not that more reliance on pay-for-performance is at work, but cherchez les taxes. Even so, five of the 100 top-paid chief legal officers on the magazine’s list broke the million dollar mark for salary.