If you weren't already irritated by the exorbitant paychecks U.S. CEOs routinely pull down, or the fact that U.S. corporations aren't bearing their share of the tax burden, wait until you get a load of this fun fact when those two issues are combined: D espite earning billions in profits, no less than 25 major U.S. firms paid less in federal income taxes last year than they paid their CEO. And get this - most of those companies actually received tax refunds ! What makes this revelation particularly painful is that so many U.S. companies are minimizing their tax payouts just as this country more than ever needs to boost its revenue, nearly 97% of which comes from taxes of all types. It needs the revenue because of spiraling deficits, and a debt burden so large that it contributed to the United States losing its pristine AAA credit rating for the first time in more than 50 years.