Ultrawealthy Team Owners Often Pay a Substantially Lower Tax Rate Than Athletes

Ultrawealthy Team Owners Often Pay a Substantially Lower Tax Rate Than Athletes
graph by ProPublica, slow reveal by Jenna Laib

(Slide deck includes notes and questions to elicit discourse)

Type of Graph: Scatterplot

Visualization Source: Faturechi, Robert, Justin Elliott and Ellis Simani. “The Billionaire Playbook: How Sports Owners Use Their Teams to Avoid Millions in Taxes.” ProPublica: July 8, 2021.

Data Source: IRS Records, via ProPublica’s Secret IRS Files project.
Team includes Robert Faturechi, Justin Elliott and Ellis Simani
Figures above reflect adjusted gross income for 2017 and 2018 added together. The tax rates were calculated using the total federal income taxes paid during those two years, including both the employees’ and employers’ share of payroll taxes. Credit:Lucas Waldron/ProPublica

Potential Math Content: scatterplot, percentages, meaning of a point, scale along the y-axis, scale along the x-axis

Potential Content Connections: wealth, capitalism, abuse of power, taxes, money, economy, sports

Sustainable Development Goal(s):
10 – Reduced inequalities