To the Editor:

I read with great interest your article on “Pay and Perks Creep Up for Private-College Presidents” (The Chronicle, December 9).

I believe one thing you failed to mention in your article is that “grossing up” is entirely legal and permitted under the Internal Revenue Service law. The salary all of these presidents receive is being taxed and paid over to the federal government. In the event the salary was not grossed up to pay the taxes, there would be a higher salary amount required for these presidents. It is going to be paid one way or the other from the same bucket of funds.

I suggest a corresponding article reporting how much these presidents raised for their universities. Without the fund-raising abilities of these executives, colleges and universities would suffer. Further, these presidents receive the salaries they do because they deal with large budgets, thousands of employees, competing priorities, decreased funding from outside sources, and constant media scrutiny.

It is a great value to pay $13,000 towards taxes for a president who raises millions of dollars for a university. And I believe the salaries of these presidents are comparable to those of private corporations in the business world.

Contract bonuses and deferred compensation are ways to secure the retention of a president of a university. The longevity of a college president has an impact upon contributions as the president has established critical relationships with donors. Again, these contract bonuses and deferred compensation are comparable to private business corporations and are valid under current law.

Your inability to decipher some relevant information from the Form 990 tax return of the universities, again, is not a fault of the university. Universities file forms with the Internal Revenue Service in compliance with the current law, although it is important to note that private universities are now disclosing more information than ever before and operate in a highly transparent manner.

Steve Hoffman
Westford, Mass.

The writer is a tax consultant for colleges.