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Companies are racking up hundreds of millions of dollars in income taxes on pay for top executives, a growing bill that in some cases makes up a sizable chunk of their annual tax expense.

OMAHA, Neb.—In the parking lot outside Elliott Equipment Co.’s manufacturing plant here last month, more than a hundred employees gathered in front of a banner-bedecked truck, its raised boom flying an American flag 30 feet overhead, to hear from the company’s chief executive and the local congressman.

At Louisiana health-care company LHC Group Inc., the board’s compensation committee has approved a 90% raise for the chief executive over

Everything about Elvis Presley was big.

A financial obfuscation of the dot-com era is making a comeback: Hundreds of U.S. companies are trumpeting adjusted net income, adjusted sales and “adjusted Ebitda.”

Shareholders like their corporate boards stocked with independent directors—men and women unencumbered by close ties to the company or its executives.

Cities and states have plied companies with tax breaks for decades hoping to attract jobs and commerce. A new accounting standard will force many to disclose the total annual cost.

Buried deep in American companies’ securities filings is an indicator for how aggressively they are working to shield their income from the Internal Revenue Service and other tax authorities.