Death, Taxes and the Assembly Top 50

In 2006, the Assembly Top 50 paid more than $43.3 billion in income taxes to one government or another.

Despite my profession as a wordsmith, I love numbers and statistics, which is why I like preparing the Assembly Top 50 report each year.

 

Here’s a statistic that didn’t make it into this year’s report: In 2006, the Assembly Top 50 paid more than $43.3 billion in income taxes to one government or another. To put that number in perspective, $43.3 billion is more than the gross domestic product of 123 countries, including Croatia, Slovenia, Belarus and Qatar. The income taxes paid by the Assembly Top 50 would fund the National Institutes of Health for two years. Or, if you’re more inclined to guns than butter, the income taxes paid by the Top 50 would buy 128 F-22 Raptor jets.

 

Whether you believe $43.3 billion is too much or too little will depend largely on your political affiliation. You could make a compelling argument either way. For example, Toyota Motor Corp.-No. 2 on our list of the Top 50 assemblers as ranked by gross revenue-paid the most income taxes of any company in the Top 50 last year. For better or for worse, the automaker spent almost as much on income taxes ($7.6 billion) as it spent on R&D ($7.8 billion). On the other hand, $43.3 billion is a drop in the bucket (1.7 percent) of the $2.48 trillion in total sales tallied by the Top 50.

 

I’ll leave the debate to the pundits. I raise the issue only to point out that product assemblers contribute a hell of a lot to the global economy. Yes, global manufacturing corporations have a lot to account for. Corporations are run by people, and people, both individually and collectively, can be unethical, self-interested and indifferent, as much as they can be moral, generous and caring.

 

Overall, however, our Top 50 assemblers-and indeed, all manufacturers-are responsible for much that is good in the world. They train and employ millions of people. They are the defacto underwriters of our healthcare insurance. And, of course, they produce things that make our lives better. So next time you hear corporation bashing out there, let ’em know who’s footing the bill.

 

 

                                         ($ millions)        ($ millions)        ($ millions)         of Revenue

Toyota                             13,987                203,710             7,641                    3.8%

GE                                   20,829                 163,391             3,954                   2.4%

IBM                                  9,492                      91,424              3,901                  4.3%

J&J                                  11,053                   53,324              3,534                   6.6%

Honda                             5,035                     94,241              2,413                   2.6%

Cisco Systems              5,580                     28,484              2,053                   7.2%

Nissan                            3,920                     89,049              1,805                   2.0%

United Technologies    3,732                    47,829               1,494                   3.1%

Caterpillar                       3,537                    41,517               1,405                   3.4%

Siemens                         3,848                  110,798               1,368                   1.2%

Motorola                          3,661                     42,879               1,349                   3.1%

Robert Bosch                 2,864                     57,650               1,202                   2.1%

Lockheed Martin            2,529                     39,620               1,063                   2.7%

Dell                                   2,614                     57,095               1,002                   1.8%

Hewlett-Packard            6,198                     91,658                993                      1.1%

Boeing                             2,215                     61,530                988                      1.6%

Texas Instruments        4,341                     14,255                987                      6.9%

Tyco                                  3,713                     40,960                920                      2.2%

Emerson Electric           1,845                     20,133                839                      4.2%

Apple Computer             1,989                    19,315                 829                      4.3%

General Dynamics         1,856                    24,063                 817                      3.4%

Rolls-Royce                    1,947                     14,016                 777                      5.5%

Deere & Co.                    1,694                     22,147                 742                      3.4%

Illinois Tool Works         1,718                     14,055                 727                      5.2%

Honeywell                       2,083                      31,367                 720                      2.3%

Northrop Grumman       1,542                     30,148                  709                      2.4%

Schneider Electric          1,777                     18,119                  706                      3.9%

Paccar                              1,496                     16,454                   679                      4.1%

Raytheon                         1,283                     20,291                    581                      2.9%

Abbott Laboratories       1,717                    22,476                     560                      2.5%

BAE Systems                  3,210                    26,960                     417                      1.5%

Magna International          528                    24,180                     264                      1.1%

Eastman Kodak                -601                    13,274                     254                     1.9%

Sun Microsystems           -864                    13,068                      189                     1.4%

Philips                              7,107                    35,614                      180                     0.5%

TRW                                    176                     13,144                      166                     1.3%

CNH                                    292                     12,998                      165                     1.3%

AB Electrolux                     477                      15,172                      139                     0.9%

Delphi                            -5,464                      26,392                      136                     0.5%

Whirlpool                           433                       18,080                      126                    0.7%

Valeo                                  219                       13,310                      99                       0.7%

Johnson Controls        1,028                        32,235                      63                      0.2%

Lear                                   -707                       17,839                      55                      0.3%

Flextronics                        509                         18,854                      4                        0.0%

Alcatel-Lucent                 -173                         16,209                     -55                    -0.3%

Xerox                               1,210                         15,895                     -288                  -1.8%

Ford                             -12,613                      160,123                      -2,646             -1.7%