How about those executive salaries?

For an executive to receive $10.00 million in spendable cash the salary before taxes needs to be $18.79 million. The total corporate cost is $25.30 million. By two routes the federal government nets $14.40 million and the state gets $892.5 grand. The employer pays $6.51 million directly to the feds in wage and associated corporate income tax.

Below is a table in which you can make changes to the values used in the calculation. The submit button will perform the calculation and let you do it again. The tax code is a bit nebulous, to say the least, so there are approximations involved. The results will be inaccurate for incomes less than $200,000 or so and companies which have special arrangements, like those which make wooden arrows exactly 3/8 of an inch in diameter, will not pay the same corporate tax. But I think the general idea will be interesting to you.

TakeHome - Enter the cash which will be available to the executive after taxes are paid. It can be thought of as what it takes to keep the employee on the job.
FederalRate - Enter the top marginal tax rate as published by the USIRS. An improvement is planned to allow for a table of lower rates but for now we're only dealing with high incomes and things like standard deductions and exemptions have been whittled down to insignificance. 35% for 2009, 39.1% for 2001 and probably for 2011 plus.
FederalRateTwo - Enter the next to the top marginal tax rate as published by the USIRS. We calculate here assuming that every executive salary hits at least that level. 33% for 2009, 35.5% for 2001 and probably for 2011 plus.
FederalBreak - Enter the breakpoint above which the top rate starts. $372,950 for 2009, $297,530 for 2001
StateRate - Enter the top marginal tax rate as published by the state. Here in Colorado it's a flat 4.75% rate. You'll probably want to use the top marginal rate for your state.
MedicareRate - This is the medicare rate which was 1.45% for employer and employee in 2009. It's likely to change soon and it may become progressive. There may also be cut-on and cut-off income levels.
MedicareExtra - This is the extra medicare rate proposed in the Senate. It's will start at $500,000 or $1,000,000 for married vs single. The House surtax would not apply - perhaps.
MedicareBreak - This is where the Senate medicare increase would start.
FICArate - This is the social security rate which was 6.2% for employer and employee in 2009.
FICAlimit - This is limit above which social security tax is not paid. It is $106,800 for employer and employee in 2009 but it is likely to change and might become progressive.
CorpTax - This is the corporate tax rate on earnings that can't be hidden away. You won't find it on the earnings reported in their annual reports. We're assuming that the lower rates for really small companies are not in use for these executives.
PayLimit - This is the highest salary, with loopholes, that can be deducted from income as a business expense by a corporation. The rule is in Section 162(m) of the Internal Revenue Code.
SurTaxrate - This is the House proposed surtaxrate to be applied to those earning $500 grand or more
SurTaxStart - This is the salary level above which the House-proposed surtax applies. Actually it would include income from dividends and interest but we only apply it to the salary here. $1 million married, $500,000 single.

www.jonescpa.com
www.irs.gov/instructions/i1120sm3/ch02.html
Medicare Tax Rate for High-Income Earners
Federal individual rates history

Note for perl users: The underlying code for this calculator is at my FTP site . Comments welcome.