Bunuel wrote:
The 38 corporations that filed United States income tax returns showing a net income of more than $ 100 million accounted for 53 percent of the total taxable income from foreign sources reported on all tax returns. Sixty percent of the total taxable income from foreign sources came from the 200 returns reporting income from 10 or more countries.
If the statements above are true, which of the following must also be true?
A. Most of the total taxable income earned by corporations with net income above $ 100 million was earned from foreign sources.
B. Wealthy individuals with large personal incomes reported 47 percent of the total taxable income from foreign sources.
C. Income from foreign sources amounted to between 53 and 60 percent of all reported taxable income.
D. Some of the corporations with net income above $ 100 million reported income from 10 or more countries.
E. Most of the tax returns showing income from 10 or more countries reported net income of more than $ 100 million.
Official Explanation:If 38 tax returns in one category account for 53 percent of the total taxable income from foreign sources, and if 200 tax returns in another category account for 60 percent of the same amount, then the two categories must overlap to some extent. Only if the two percentages, added together, amounted to 100 percent or less is there not necessarily any overlap. Here, the two percentages add up to 113 percent. The answer choice that expresses an overlap between the category of corporations with a net income of above $ 100 million and that of corporations with income from 10 or more countries is
D, which is thus the correct answer. A is not correct. Whereas corporations with net incomes of above $ 100 million account for more than half of the total taxable income from foreign sources, we cannot tell from the information given what proportion of their own total incomes from all sources is derived from incomes from foreign sources.
The second answer choice is incorrect. All we can infer is that 47 percent was reported by taxpayers other than corporations with net incomes above $ 100 million. These taxpayers could be other corporations with somewhat lower incomes.
C is not the correct answer choice. The figures of 53 and 60 percent refer to percentages of total taxable income from foreign sources. Neither these nor any other figures in the passage refer to or imply any percentages of all reported taxable income.
E, the last choice, is also incorrect. Since there are only 38 corporations with reported net incomes of more than $ 100 million, but 200 taxpayers with income from 10 or more countries, at the very most somewhat less than 20 percent of those 200 taxpayers could report net incomes of more than $ 100 million.
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