JUNE 13--The not-for-profit “social justice organization” headed by Rev. Al Sharpton paid the New York activist a whopping $437,555 bonus--on top of his $250,000 salary--according to the group’s most recent tax return submitted to the Internal Revenue Service.
The hefty payment to Sharpton was revealed in a filing by the National Action Network, the Harlem-based group Sharpton founded nearly 25 years ago. The organization’s 2016 tax return, which Sharpton signed in November 2017, 
disclosed the “one-time bonus” to the 63-year-old civil rights leader.
According to its tax return, the National Action Network “works within the spirit and tradition” of Martin Luther King Jr. and promotes “an agenda that includes an equal standard of justice and decency for all people regardless of race.” Sharpton, who serves as the group’s president and CEO, spends an average of 40 hours a week working for the organization, according to the tax return.
The “Christian activist social justice organization” has 34 employees and 125 volunteers and reported $5.821 million in revenue in 2016 (the most recent year for which financial records have been made public). Expenses for 2016 totaled $5.817 million.
Sharpton’s 2016 “base salary” was $250,000. The bonus payment ballooned his total compensation to $687,555[1].
In justifying the bonus, the National Action Network--which Sharpton controls--told the IRS that, over the past 25 years, Sharpton had “periodically declined compensation to ensure that the organization had sufficient operating funds to fulfill its payroll obligations and maintain ongoing operations.” The organization added that it had previously “received the services of the President and CEO without fully compensating for his services.”[2]
Additionally, the group “recognizes that it did not offer any retirement or benefit package to the President and CEO in contrast