Thirty companies that paid negative income taxes in 2008-2010
Reuters featured a news report identifying corporations that effectively had zero or negative taxes.
"Thirty corporations paid less than nothing in aggregate federal income taxes over the entire 2008-10 period. These companies, whose pretax U.S. profits totaled $160 billion over the three years, included: Pepco Holdings (–57.6% tax rate), General Electric (–45.3%), DuPont (–3.4%), Verizon (–2.9%), Boeing (–.8%), Wells Fargo (–1.4%) and Honeywell (–0.7%)."
I took the data referenced in the story and charted the table of thirty companies with their respective profits versus the income tax. The data source location is in the 'News and Data Source' tab of the visualization.
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It would be more compelling if the x axis was similarly scaled on both the tax and profit sides, to show how much money the companies are actually making. Right now bar length comparison is very misleading.
Thanks for the comment. I completely agree and have made a chart style change. The ratios are high between the two measures, so on my first attempt the tax bar effectively disappeared when similarly scaled. It took a bit of experimentation, but I re-created the chart using one scale and narrowing the range in order to keep more detail. I think it now strikes a good balance, and I've noted the two high values off the chart. I appreciate the feedback.
The data is an eye-opener. The data source is very rich and there's more in there to visualize which I hope to do soon.
This is important work.
ReplyDeleteIt would be more compelling if the x axis was similarly scaled on both the tax and profit sides, to show how much money the companies are actually making. Right now bar length comparison is very misleading.
Best, Noah
Noah,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment. I completely agree and have made a chart style change. The ratios are high between the two measures, so on my first attempt the tax bar effectively disappeared when similarly scaled. It took a bit of experimentation, but I re-created the chart using one scale and narrowing the range in order to keep more detail. I think it now strikes a good balance, and I've noted the two high values off the chart. I appreciate the feedback.
The data is an eye-opener. The data source is very rich and there's more in there to visualize which I hope to do soon.