Due to popular demand, I have updated my 2010 graph on top marginal tax rates. In addition, during this year’s tax season, I will be selling copies of my Top Marginal Tax Rates graph as a tabloid size 11″x17″ poster. If you would like to be notified when this poster is available please sign up!

If you would like to be notified when this poster is available please sign up!
FYI, your marginal tax rate is the rate you pay on the “last dollar” you earn; but when you view the taxes you paid as a percentage of your income, your effective tax rate is less than your marginal rate, especially after you take into account the deductions and exemptions, i.e. income that is not subject to any tax.

Tax Data: Married filing jointly, Capital Gains & Regular, Historical Corporate, Corporate Tax Schedule (page16) pdf

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First published in Slate to accompany an article written by Tim Noah, I created these graphs about income inequality covering the changes in income inequality as well as looking at changes in race, gender, education, taxes and political party in the White House.

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I worked with Economic Modeling Specialists on a data graphic that looks to distinguish between growth from large national forces vs. local competitive advantages within a state.

Learn more about the data and analysis at the EMSI Blog.

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This one of the graphics that I presented recently at The Big Picture conference here in New York City. It is from a project I am currently working on called An Illustrated Guide to Income in the United States: a collection of infographics, maps and charts looking at the different incomes and occupations in the United States.

Recently the conversation in the news has been about the top 1%, however, in this graphic I show the breakdown of personal income by different percentiles, including the top 0.01% (i.e. income above $9 million). I have used 10,000 “people” to represent the tax returns filed in 2008, each “person” one equals 15,246 tax units. (A tax unit is single adult or married couple living together, including their dependents.)

So the top 1% are represented by the 100 “people” in the four (orange, yellow, magenta & red) rectangles the upper left corner.

Approximately $8.2 trillion in personal income (including capital gains) was reported to the IRS in 2008. Divide that by 152 million tax units you get an average income of $54,315. I have the size of the “people” represent the average income for each percentile group. For example the Average Income for the Top 0.01% = $27 million.

Data is from Saez and Piketty research which is now available at the The World Top Incomes Database 

Sign up to be notified when the Income Guide is done:

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A simple example showing what happens when you only pay the minimun monthly payment on your credit card debt. I submitted this to Longshot magazine’s issue on Debt but my graphic didn’t make it in but you can take a look at the other submissions on their site.

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I will be speaking at the The Big Picture Conference on October 11th. Early Registration ($395) has begun. You can sign up at Eventbrite

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While my blog has been pretty quiet over the summer as I work to finish my Income Guide I just wanted to pass on some good news. I recently applied for and received one of four $12,000 NMWE grants from the J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism at American University. This initiative is supported by the McCormick Foundation. J-Lab helps news organizations and citizens use new media technologies to create fresh ways for people to participate in public life. This grant lasts until the fall of 2012 and supplements $14,000 that I raised on Kickstarter. My plan over the next year is to build on the work I am doing this summer by redesigning my website while continuing to create infographic explainers using economic data that help journalists, teachers, students, financial bloggers and citizens understand economic numbers and policy.

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This is the second map that I created with my urban geographer brother Matthew Mulbrandon on the Housing Price Index (HPI). A description of these maps as well as the first set can be found on Design & Geography. This new set is inflation adjusted and covers the entire span of the Federal Housing data set 1991-2010.

Data source: Federal Housing Finance Agency

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A quick recap of my experiences fundraising via Kickstarter for my Illustrated Guide to Income in the United States. (If you missed the deadline to back the project and you like to be notified when it is done then please subscribe to this blog by RSS or by Email.)

Overall it was a very successful: over 60 days I got 325 backers and $14,124 dollars pledged. Average pledge of $43.46

A few observations:

• Weekends were slower than weekday (especially Sunday).
• Pledges always spiked the day I posted something new on my blog but this effect decreased over the 60 days.
• When my graphs from my blog were reposted by Huffington Post this increased traffic to my website but other sites (like The Big Picture) recommending my Kickstarter project were more helpful in generating pledges
• As the pledge drive went on I received more attention from Kickstarter “veterans” i.e. backers who pledged to multiple projects before pledging to mine. Because of the backers from VisualizingEconomics.com I was high on the list of popular projects in the Writing and Publishing category which meant other people could discover me. In the end, the money raised from this group (54 backers) covered the 5% Kickstarter fee especially since many of them contributed more than the minimum amount.

For other other funding experiences check out Craig Mod’s review and this overview posted on the Kickstarter blog.

My posts will slow down for a while as I work on the Income Guide over the summer. But in the meantime you can checkout the interview I did for OWNI in April which you can read in French and in English.

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For those of you who have already pledged at Kickstarter thanks to you I am just under $14,000 well beyond my original goal!! If you have been meaning to sign up and support my project you still have a few hours left. The project ends 3:00am EST (12pm PST) today.

You can pledge as little as $5 and get a reward…

Thanks!
Catherine

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