Disclaimer: I haven&#x27;t read the article in full.<p>Corporation tax in the UK is payable on &#x27;profits subject to corporation tax&#x27;. In laymen&#x27;s terms this is roughly equivalent to to accounting profit.<p>Employee salaries, bonuses, etc are generally deductible; if you pay me 50K, that&#x27;s 50K out of your bottom line.<p>The employees in question likely pay a variety of taxes including but not limited to the standard income tax. In an extreme scenario (recent graduate + highest tax band) that could be 61% rate.<p>(For comparison, the 2015 rate for Corporation Tax is 20%; so as far as the Exchequer is concerned, a salary payment is preferable, at least in immediate terms).<p>In summary, I think there&#x27;s a discussion to be had here about abuse of taxation frameworks but the headline here is bait; the bonuses are irrelevant, any oddities regarding transfer payments etc. are what should be focused on.