Assuming he pays 25% tax, which i’d be very suspicious about, he’s about 2 million short of his current “fair share”.

26 000 000 * 0.25 = 6 500 000

26 000 000 * 0.33 = 8 580 000

If he’s deferring till retirement, then likely his tax rate is less, and the bank is lending him money which he can spend freely and call a capital loss lowering his effective tax rate when he does incur those taxes.

The thing about being this wealthy is you can afford to pay people to find ways to lower this rate.

I don’t think i’m “mad” about this, but concerned. This kind of inequality leads to violent upheaval, and is currently the cause of a whole pile of unnecessary suffering. If we didn’t have people that were this wealthy and some of that money was distributed to say education, healthcare, UBI, we could all have a much healthier pleasant life.

You don’t pay taxes on the option, because you haven’t bought the option till you exercise it.

Anyway the amount was kinda fixed (it’s been awhile) like 25%, it was also years ago, so things may have changed. They are also distinct from RSU’s which i believe aren’t taxed as low, but still better than top marginal tax rate for income.

Anyway it doesn’t seem like those are really the whole story (https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/36l575/eli5_how_can_it_be_that_ceos_often_pay_an/) – it looks like the tax escape mechanism is to get deferred stocks - which admittedly for the Tobias case we’d have to see how those stocks were awarded. I still think my point 2 applys - why would he take compensation in this mostly stocks manner (and like every other CEO i’ve seen) unless there was some benefit.

I was ready to get up in arms, but this is actually good news. It looks like at one point in tiny text under our national parks it would say “state park” – which doesn’t make sense in canada, they are fixing that.

Although the locations were titled “provincial park” in large text, in small print, many across the country were labelled as “state parks” — a longstanding practice, according to the company.

However, that language came under increased scrutiny in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated threat that he wants to annex Canada against the wishes of Canada’s political leaders and widespread public opinion.

1. I’ve exercised options from a company in canada, they were taxed distinctly (and more favourably) from income.

2. He’d have no reason to take his payment this way otherwise. (FWIW Every CEO (both canadian and american) of a wealthy company i’ve seen has taken their pay in a manner similar to this: most of the comp is in stocks)

Your supposition that “every economist agrees that a wealth tax doesn’t make any sense mathematically”, I find in bad faith, not that you are against it. It’s obvious that you are against it.

Maybe you have a book that argues in favor of a wealth tax

I don’t see how you could talk about economics and not know about that book.

He earns 1$ income, the rest is options, his income is below the minimum taxable. The taxes he pays on options aren’t income tax.

But I am pretty sure every economist agrees that a wealth tax doesn’t make any sense mathematically

I find it difficult to believe you could come to this conclusion in good faith, given how many serious economists advocate for wealth tax.

This economist wrote an award winning book on the topic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_in_the_Twenty-First_Century, where he advocates for a wealth tax.

There are so many people in Canada that make way more than this who just aren’t paying their fair share. We should also be doing more to tax assets other than income.

People who take a salary – even a high salary, are most paying their fair share. I think they could make a reasonable argument that they pay way more than most (above 246752, 33% which is more than most people in the country).

Compare that with the wealthy:

From here

CEO Tobias Lütke (who was paid a $1 salary but received more than $26 million in option-based awards).

1$, meaning he pays ZERO income tax (he likely pays some taxes on his options).

This is somewhat common for wealthy people, adding more brackets on income isn’t going get them paying their fair share.

What I believe we non wealthy people want to see is a wealth tax.