What sill Stassen's operating income be if it uses variable costing or absorption costing? The differences between these methods are apparent in Exhibit 9-1. Panel A shows the variable costing income statement and Panel B the absorption-costing income statement for Stassen's telescope product line for 2014. The variable-costing income statement uses the contribution-margin format (introduced in Chapter 3). The absorption-costing income statement uses the gross-margin format (introduced in Chapter 2). Why these different formats? the distinction between variable costs and fixed costs is central to