Talk about adding insult to injury. Not only have Steve Schwarzman’s Blackstone shares plunged since its IPO, knocking billions off his net worth, but the firm has also cut his annual pay to less than $1 million per day.
Stephen Schwarzman received $350.2 million in cash distributions last year, a 12% pay cut from 2006, when he received $398.2 million in cash distributions.
At that rate, he’s going to have to work through the morning of April 14 this year just to earn back the $100 million he’s donated to the NYPL. Still, on April the 15th he can still celebrate the fact that he’s only paying 15% tax on his "carried interest".
As for Schwarzman’s claim that he pays 36% of his income in taxes, it’s worth remembering that New York city and state taxes alone run at 11.34% for a man in Schwarzman’s tax bracket. Which means his federal tax rate is a maximum of 25%, and could be much lower depending on what other taxes Schwarzman might be including in that 36% figure.