Curbing Executive Pay - NYTimes.com Re "Citigroup's Chief Rebuffed on Pay by Shareholders" (front page, April 18): There is a neat solution to the problem of excessive executive pay. In fact, it was used by the Internal Revenue Service to curb such pay when I first began working as an actuary for corporate retirement plans more than 50 years ago. Simply set a limit on pay above which the company would be taxed. For example, with a $1 million limit and a salary of $10 million, the company would not be allowed to deduct $9 million. Since $9 million would be taxed, the company would have a reason to use it for deductible items, like contributions to employee pension and health insurance plans, increasing the work force and cutting overtime. The economy would benefit from the improved circulation of money. And stockholders would not have to be involved. The writer is a consulting actuary.