Tax Methodology

In the United States, publicly traded companies are required to report their annual income tax payments to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Annual income figures are also reported by publicly traded companies to the SEC. These SEC-reported tax and income figures, when combined, represent publicly accessible, directly measurable and independently verified data points for inclusion in a Spendwell ranking. This data is typically reported at a company’s fiscal year end. This Spendwell ranking is predicated on the values-based statement that a company should pay its fair share in taxes.

Currently, Spendwell ranks companies on US federal income tax only. Corporations that pay a higher percentage of their annual US federal income in taxes rank higher than those paying a lower percentage. In order to account for fluctuations in tax payments such as one-time tax holidays and other variances, Spendwell reports on an average of the last five available years of a company’s tax history and any year where a company reports no profit or a loss is excluded from their tax average.

In some reporting instances, Spendwell’s rankings will include private companies with no current tax information publicly available. These companies might be included in a report, but will be listed as not ranked unless they have voluntarily published their tax information and Spendwell has been made aware of its publication. All ranked companies are ranked based on the previously mentioned data reported to the SEC through end-of-year or annual reports, which can be accessed through the SEC’s Edgar search tool here:

SEC EDGAR SEARCH

Search for a company by name to view its filed 10-k reports.

For Spendwell's ranking purposes, tax data is considered and compared to other companies based on the year in which a fiscal year actually ends, which is not necessarily the company's reported or designated fiscal year.