back to article Eric Schmidt trousers his monstrous package at Google

Top Googler Eric Schmidt is getting a tasty $6m bonus for his performance at the Chocolate Factory this year, part of a package of $15m getting spread around among the C-suite Oompa Loompas. Neither of the firm's co-founders, chief exec Larry Page and Sergey Brin, are getting a 2012 bonus: but Google's top lawyer, the head …

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  1. JDX Gold badge

    Woah

    He earns less than Wayne Rooney?

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    He earns his money

    Good luck to him.

    Just a quick off topic, Tesco buys Giraffe restaurants:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21769507

    Due to the recent contaminated meat scandal so as to distance themselves from bushmeat they are now going to rename the chain to:

    Shergars

    1. Chris Miller

      Re: He earns his money

      Gosh, imagine how much he'd earn if he actually had a clue*.

      * about technology - he needs no help in siphoning cash out of an organisation.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: He earns his money

      How does he earn it? you really think Android is successful because of his good work? Schmidt used to work for Novell and they couldn't sell anything.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sounds much more reasonable than the billions wall street execs pocketed before the crash of 2008. Then the millions in bonuses they trousered when the US gov bailed them out.

  4. Russ Tarbox
    Paris Hilton

    I think this is the best headline and subline I've ever seen on El Reg.

    Paris because the headline probably drew her in and disappointed her.

  5. Silverburn
    Holmes

    $1 salary...

    ...tax dodge? Or just showing off?

    1. I think so I am?
      Facepalm

      Re: $1 salary...

      When your net worth is in the billions, $15millions is like a few weeks interest.

    2. Don Jefe

      Re: $1 salary...

      It is common reason. They don't need the money & it's just shitty to milk your company when you're sitting on billions.

      That being said, there's an ongoing hypothetical argument among our legal types & they wonder if it is legal to take less than minimum wage and be considered a non-contract employee. U.S. law does not allow contacts to override guaranteed protections (minimum wage for non-contract staff, child support, etc...).

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: $1 salary...

        It is common reason. They don't need the money & it's just shitty to milk your company when you're sitting on billions.

        However they probably need to be paid something to establish that they are "employees" and to cover various legal obligations that result from that (especially in a non-contract state like California). Similar to the way that when I filed some patents while working out there the US part of the company I work for paid me $1 for the transfer of each patent to them (demonstrated by a certificate with a dollar bill attached for each patent) so that they could confirm that I'd transferred the ownership by accepting the payment ... unlike in the UK where such a patent would just be deemed as owned by employers due to clauses in employment contract.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: $1 salary...

      Think its showing that they see themselves as equals to Steve Jobs (who also took a $1 salary when he came back to Apple)

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: $1 salary...

      @Silverburn - It's a tax dodge - you take $1 salary and get a ton of share options. The share options can be used as collateral for a massive, tax free, loan.

      I why should those that get paid millions and millions pay tax to support the state which allows them to do this? Reprehensible.

      1. JDX Gold badge

        Re: $1 salary...

        I think you accidentally got here instead of whingingleftwingentitlement.com

  6. Shagbag
    Megaphone

    Let's hear it you labor-voting lefties...

    Tax him! Tax him! He should pay more tax! Tax everything he owns! Let's have a(nother) tax on his house, a tax on his kids! Let's tax the crap out of the productive economy and give it all to the non-productive economy. Bring back Gordon Brown!

    Keep the socialist cries coming you shit talkers.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Let's hear it you labor-voting lefties...

      So when the black outs start and servers of the world start powering down, people like Messerschmitt will be moaning about a lack of investment in infrastructure. Which wouldn't happen if big nobheads like him actually paid what they are supposed to instead of deciding to fiddle their way out of it.

      1. Shagbag
        Thumb Up

        Re: Let's hear it you labor-voting lefties...

        Blackouts? LOL. You obviously weren't in the UK in 1970s. As for him not paying "what they are supposed to", I'm sure he pays every cent of tax he is legally obliged to. And no more. There's nothing to stop you paying more if you want to, but then, I'd guess you too only pay the legal amount as well. If that's the case, then stop with the hypocrisy. And let go of the envy.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Let's hear it you labor-voting lefties...

          Yes, I'm sure he pays every cent of tax he is legally obliged to, I'm also sure that he is tax dodging scum.

          1. Silverburn

            Re: Let's hear it you labor-voting lefties...

            Once more...with feeling...

            Evasion != Avoidance.

            Lets all be honest - we'd do this too, if we had the massive financial buffer to do so.

            *Nobody* (willfully) pays 1 pence more tax than they absolutely have to. And nobody can claim innocence...how many have bought a glass of milk *to go* from Mcdonalds, then "tasted" it (or drank it entirely) on the premises? Then you owe the VAT man 20%...you thieving barsteward...

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Let's hear it you labor-voting lefties...

              @Silverburn - I am a higher rate tax payer, I am glad that I can help pay for the society in which I live. I could go contracting and pay myself minimum wage, clawing the rest back in dividends but I don't. I want to live in a society where people care enough for each other that they willingly pay for their co-existence.

              I don't scam the system by buying take-away and consuming it on the premises, what sort of cheapskate does that?

              It seems that you have a pretty sad view of everyone else.

              1. JDX Gold badge

                Re: Let's hear it you labor-voting lefties...

                >>I am glad that I can help pay for the society in which I live. I could go contracting and pay myself minimum wage, clawing the rest back in dividends but I don't.

                You totally fail to understand the very point of contracting which is lifestyle rather than tax dodging. You can be a contractor and pay yourself a regular salary. And you have to pay tax on dividends, moreso dividends which take your personal earnings above the higher rate.

                Typical leftie rant... bang on about morality while being factually ignorant. I assume you don't have an ISA or pension?

                1. Shagbag
                  Thumb Up

                  Re: Let's hear it you labor-voting lefties...

                  @Silverburn:

                  Yes, you are avoiding tax - according to the hypocrite lefties around here that think, just because you're financially successful you should somehow be subject to a different set of tax laws.

                  That's what Soviet Russia was all about - financial disincentives to work hard. And that worked out well, didn't it?

                  They never stop to think that these "rich" people don't burden the NHS (they go private), don't send their kids to a government school (again, they pay twice and go private) and don't rely on state benefits in their old age (they're entirely self-funded in retirement). No, these labour-voting, neo-socialist hypocrites want other people to pay more tax just so that they can all go and live on benefits like the rest of Scotland.

                  1. walatam

                    Re: Let's hear it you labor-voting lefties...

                    @shagbag

                    "Yes, you are avoiding tax - according to the hypocrite lefties around here that think, just because you're financially successful you should somehow be subject to a different set of tax laws."

                    No. We should all be subject to the same tax laws and be subject to the same levels of tax as defined by those laws regardless of our wealth / privilege etc. This is the key point - some people can afford to avoid tax. The majority can not.

                    1. Shagbag

                      Re: same tax laws and same levels of tax as defined by those laws

                      Err, we are.

                      What you're saying doesn't make any sense. Just because someone is richer than you doesn't mean they operate under different tax law. ANYONE who can read, can avail themselves of the tax law. All tax law is available to the public if they care to look at it. You don't have to be a wealthy or privileged to read it, understand it and then think about the most tax-efficient way to achieve a particular transaction. It's tax law, not rocket science.

                      To think that the wealthy somehow get a tax benefit for being so is a joke. Yes it is easier for them to pay someone else to do it for them, but then life's always going to be easier if you're rich. That's why people go to work. Hard work should be rewarded and those rewards should not be taken away from them just because they work harder or they're smarter about how they work. To do so is what the Soviets did and it was an EPIC FAIL.

                      But telling that to a labour-voting leftie is like arguing with a member of The Flat Earth Society.

                      Chant the mantra you lefties "the rich shouldn't be rich, hard work shouldn't be rewarded, tax the wealthy disproportionately".

        2. walatam

          Re: Let's hear it you labor-voting lefties...

          "There's nothing to stop you paying more if you want to, but then, I'd guess you too only pay the legal amount as well."

          Something winding you up dear?

          I think you are missing a very important point - some people get upset at the inequality of such situations. Is it right that having money / position / privilege should open up ways for you to reduce your tax bill? Can I, with my massively lower wealth, do what others are able to regarding tax?

          It is not, for me, about envy, it is about equality (or the lack of it).

          By the way, I am a higher rate taxpayer and consider it my duty to pay the "full" amount. To find creative ways to avoid paying tax, while not necessarily illegal, strikes me as immoral - I do believe there is such a thing as "community".

          I remember the 1970's in the UK. We had a Labour government, at least for part of the time, and we knew how to spell it.

          1. Silverburn

            Re: Let's hear it you labor-voting lefties...

            I moved to a new country to pay less tax. Is that avoidance? I pay the full amount due for my salary, but still pay less than half of the uk amount, and receive better services all round.

            Which is more immoral - being tax "efficient", or a government overly taxing your people and being massively wasteful with it?

            1. walatam

              Re: Let's hear it you labor-voting lefties...

              "I moved to a new country to pay less tax. Is that avoidance?"

              No.

          2. southpacificpom
            Pint

            Re: Let's hear it you labor-voting lefties...

            "By the way, I am a higher rate taxpayer and consider it my duty to pay the "full" amount. To find creative ways to avoid paying tax, while not necessarily illegal, strikes me as immoral - I do believe there is such a thing as "community"."

            I'll raise a glass to you sir!

            I remember in the early 90's before I left UK, sitting at a dinner party with my wife's relatives and some of their friends during which most of them went on the verbal attack about dole bludgers etc then, proceeded to talk about their tax fiddles with great laughter and merriment . It pretty much disgusted me and I couldn't wait to get away from that dinner party.

            What a bunch of assholes they all were!

  7. John Latham

    P/E: 25.49. Dividends: 0.

    Sometimes I wonder whether Facebook is an elaborate ruse to make Google shares look good value.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So, let me get this right..

    Schmidt could have paid that puny US WiFi data theft fine basically from his own pocket without being much out of champagne and private planes.

    Shows you just how effective that fine is in changing Google's future behaviour. It's basically stating "anything is allowed if you can afford an expensive lawyer. Unless you show t*ts on TV".

  9. Tom Jolly

    Google have a great business model.

    Aside from having a virtual monopoly on internet search advertising revenue, they champion open-source software saving a packet on R&D and developer salaries, stick loads of Google branding on it, shove as much advertising as they can get away with and rake in the profits with very little effort.

    Genius. Lets just hope they don't blow the lot on space travel grow a social conscience and try and cure cancer or something. Cross your fingers.

  10. Fred Flintstone Gold badge

    What I want to know is ..

    .. how much they paid Schmid's ego. That is so large it must have its own Social Security number by now.

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