New York-based Marsh & McLennan paid its Bermudian CEO Brian Duperreault more than it paid to the US Treasury in taxes, according to report by a US think tank.The global insurance broker, which has a strong presence in Bermuda, was one of 26 American companies named by the liberal-leaning Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) for allegedly paying their top executive more than Uncle Sam.Bermuda is also mentioned in the report as one of the “tax havens” where companies locate subsidiaries, allegedly to keep profits offshore and out of the reach of the US tax man.According to the report, Mr Duperreault’s total compensation amounted to $14.28 million in 2011. MMC earned $993 million in global profits and paid $7 million in US taxes.Last night, an MMC spokesman in New York declined to comment on the report’s findings.American International Group, another New York-based company with a substantial presence in Bermuda, also appears on the list. The bailed-out insurer received a tax refund of $208 million last year, related to losses in previous years.Mr Duperreault is highly respected in Bermuda, where he oversaw the growth of Ace Ltd as its chairman and CEO between 1994 and 2004, when he stepped down as CEO. He continued as Ace chairman through 2007.The 2007 Bermuda Insurance Institute Lifetime Achievement Award winner came out of retirement to take the CEO’s role at MMC in January 2008 and has overseen an improvement in profitability since.He is also active in charitable circles in Bermuda as the chair emeritus of the Centre on Philanthropy and the chairman of the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS).In addition, Mr Duperreault is also a partner in Southlands Ltd, the developer seeking to build a luxury resort at Morgan’s Point.Other companies named on the list include AT&T, Citigroup, Boeing, Ford and Halliburton. The report’s authors suggest that one of the reasons the 26 corporations were able to pay so little tax in the US was the use of subsidiaries in low-tax jurisdictions.“Combined, the 26 firms have 537 subsidiaries in tax-haven countries such as the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, and Gibraltar,” the IPS report stated.The report claims that MMC has 108 subsidiaries in “tax havens”. In Bermuda, the MMC’s companies include a captive management operation, as well as insurance and reinsurance brokerages.These do not fit the bill of the “shell companies” that the IPS says are used by some corporations on the list for channelling profits offshore through a process known as transfer pricing. This is most commonly used by technology and pharmaceutical companies who assign ownership of intellectual property to subsidiaries in low-tax jurisdictions, so royalties are directed to them.To calculate companies’ tax bills, the study used companies’ own calculations based on accounting rules. Regulators require companies to estimate their tax bill and disclose it in public documents for investors.The tax filings the companies make to the US government, typically in September, are private and can differ from the estimate.The study also doesn’t count tax the company plans to pay but has deferred to future years. The authors argue that deferred tax can be put off indefinitely.The study said deductions and credits are allowing companies to lavish big pay packages on executives so they can cut their tax bills while Washington gets less money in a time of trillion-plus deficits.On average, the 26 companies generated net income of more than $1 billion in the US, the study said.The study blasted tax rules allowing unlimited deductions for CEO “performance-based” pay, like many stock options. It said the five biggest performance payers among the 26 companies took $232 million of these deductions last year.The “tax havens” identified in the report are based on countries identified in a 2008 report by the US Government Accountability Office entitled “International Taxation: Large US Corporations and Federal Contractors with Subsidiaries in Jurisdictions Listed as Tax Havens or Financial Privacy Jurisdictions”.