5 ms·

I suspect many founders of profitable non VC funded startups have small salaries and instead "pay" themselves through dividends as it can have tax advantages wh

I suspect many founders of profitable non VC funded startups have small salaries and instead "pay" themselves through dividends as it can have tax advantages which might color the value of such graphs. That said, I believe such companies aren't always considered "startups" around these parts for some reason but that can be hazy when it comes to other people's surveys.

philip1209 13y ago
Don't forget expenses - if your life is your business, then you go as far as expensing part of your rent, lease, and more in some cases.
jakejake 13y ago
Yes this article is somewhat misleading in my opinion. I would imagine that a lot of CEOs only pay themselves a fraction of their income through typical payroll. Steve Jobs famously paid himself $1 salary. Although in his case he apparently didn't take other forms of compensation since apparently he didn't need the income. But many other CEOs are known to take low salaries and then get millions in bonuses or stocks.
- basseq 13y ago
  Although in his case he apparently didn't take other forms of compensation since apparently he didn't need the income. He received millions in stock options (e.g., a December 2001 grant of 7.5 million options to Jobs that subsequently ended in a backdating scandal) and an Apple-sponsored private plane beyond his salary.
  - jakejake 13y ago
    Ah, so much for Wikipedia! Well I guess that goes to prove my point even further than CEOs can appear to be making no salary but are actually receiving tons of money.
w4 13y ago
This was the very first thing I thought of. In order to take advantage of forms of income with a lower tax rate (eg dividends) you must also pay yourself a "reasonable wage" subject to regular income taxes. However, the tax code largely disincentives taking any additional compensation above that "reasonable wage" as vanilla income when you have other methods of receiving the money at lower tax rates.

philip1209 13y ago

Don't forget expenses - if your life is your business, then you go as far as expensing part of your rent, lease, and more in some cases.

jakejake 13y ago

Yes this article is somewhat misleading in my opinion. I would imagine that a lot of CEOs only pay themselves a fraction of their income through typical payroll. Steve Jobs famously paid himself $1 salary. Although in his case he apparently didn't take other forms of compensation since apparently he didn't need the income. But many other CEOs are known to take low salaries and then get millions in bonuses or stocks.

basseq 13y ago
Although in his case he apparently didn't take other forms of compensation since apparently he didn't need the income. He received millions in stock options (e.g., a December 2001 grant of 7.5 million options to Jobs that subsequently ended in a backdating scandal) and an Apple-sponsored private plane beyond his salary.
- jakejake 13y ago
  Ah, so much for Wikipedia! Well I guess that goes to prove my point even further than CEOs can appear to be making no salary but are actually receiving tons of money.

w4 13y ago

This was the very first thing I thought of. In order to take advantage of forms of income with a lower tax rate (eg dividends) you must also pay yourself a "reasonable wage" subject to regular income taxes. However, the tax code largely disincentives taking any additional compensation above that "reasonable wage" as vanilla income when you have other methods of receiving the money at lower tax rates.