Three senators and three congressmen have sent letters to 35 companies that paid more in executive compensation from 2018 to 2022 than corporate taxes.

The 35 companies were identified in a report published by the Institute for Policy Studies and Americans for Tax Fairness as having paid more in Named Executive Officer (NEO) compensation than in total corporate taxes over the five-year period following the passage of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). The 2017 TCJA cut the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% in addition to other provisions, and certain elements of the legislation are set to expire in 2025. With that deadline approaching, the letter raises the issue of reforming the tax code to increase the corporate tax rate and eliminate loopholes.

This is not the first time executive pay has been scrutinized in the context of the tax code. The Institute for Policy Studies has conducted this analysis annually for 30 years and used it to criticize the now-defunct legislation allowing the deduction of performance-based compensation above $1 million paid to top executives under the 162(m) regulation, the “Bush tax cuts,” and to contrast executive pay with federal bailouts after the 2008 financial crash.