Happy New Year 2025

Tag: income

  • CEO of water brand donates salary to LA fire victims, reduces income to

    CEO of water brand donates salary to LA fire victims, reduces income to $1

    Jordan Bass, CEO and co-founder of Hop Wtr, reduced his salary to $1 following the tragic fires in Los Angeles, California, in January. Bass told FOX Business that he encourages other CEOs of brands to do the same or to contribute where they can.

    Jordan Bass, CEO and co-founder of Hop Wtr, a non-alcoholic beverage brand, reduced his salary to $1 to provide immediate financial support to his employees, first responders and Los Angeles community members who were affected by the wildfires in January.

    Headquartered in Los Angeles, Hop Wtr team members were forced to evacuate their homes, uncertain of what they might return to.

    “Work took a backseat during that period,” Bass told FOX Business. “We’re a small company, so I have personal relationships with everyone in the company. I know all of our people. I know their families.”

    WILL HURRICANES AND WILDFIRES CAUSE INSURANCE PRICES TO RISE NATIONWIDE?

    Jordan Bass, CEO and co-founder of Hop Wtr, reduced his salary to $1 to support victims and employees during the devastating Los Angeles wildfires in January 2025. (Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images / Getty Images | Hop Wtr / Getty Images)

    Amid evacuations, Bass ensured the safety of his employees by quickly coordinating forms of mass communication to team members living in and out of California. With Bass’ salary reduction, he was able to provide incremental funds for affected employees. This included reimbursement for air purifiers.

    “We really care about each other pretty deeply,” Bass said. “I’m not a billionaire. We don’t have a big philanthropy department, but we felt really compelled to help. I hope this inspires other CEOs to contribute if they can.”

    Despite having urgently evacuated his own family amid the raging wildfires, Bass said his team immediately mobilized and donated 10,000 cans of water to first responders, fire stations, fire camps and evacuation centers.

    CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES COULD COST INSURERS $20B, HIGHEST IN STATE’S HISTORY

    Jordan Bass, CEO and co-founder of Hop Wtr, told FOX Business that he was fortunate his family and home were safe in the aftermath of the LA fires. Hop Wtr donated 10,000 cans of water to first responders immediately, and 50,000 cans later.

    “We realized we had a product that people needed, and we felt a real calling to help,” Bass told FOX Business.

    “I just felt like I wanted to do more,” Bass said. “It wasn’t enough and the quickest way for me to do that was lower my salary and contribute those funds to help our employees get through this situation, help them with recovery, help continue to get clean water to those in need and to help with the rebuilding efforts.”

    As part of their continued efforts to help amid the LA fires, Hop Wtr partnered with All Hands and Hearts, a volunteer-powered nonprofit, to disperse both water and financial support. Furthermore, Hop Wtr supported community outreach by establishing communication channels for people who were in need. The brand also launched a fundraising campaign for customers which garnered thousands of dollars.

    STATE FARM, OTHER INSURERS SLAMMED FOR DROPPING COVERAGE

    Cans of Hop Wtr

    Hop Wtr provided 10,000 cans of water to first responders, fire camps and more immediately after wildfires raged in LA. An additional 50,000 cans were later distributed. (HOP WTR / Fox News)

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    “It’s really amazing to see that,” Bass said.

    “I believe that as a business leader, it’s imperative to use my business platform for good and this has been absolutely devastating on many people,” he said. “I call on other CEOs to do the same and use your company, your salary, your platform to help with this recovery.”

  • Trump proposes abolishment of federal income tax, bringing US back to ‘richest period’ in history

    Trump proposes abolishment of federal income tax, bringing US back to ‘richest period’ in history

    ‘The Big Money Show’ discusses President Donald Trump’s ‘aggressive’ economic agenda. 

    Pitching a monumental and potentially controversial proposal to his Republican allies, President Donald Trump is seemingly floating the idea of scrapping federal income taxes altogether.

    “We had no income tax. The income tax came in…1913. As I said in my speech last week, instead of taxing our citizens to enrich foreign nations, we should be tariffing and taxing foreign nations to enrich our citizens,” Trump said during his conference address in Doral, Florida, on Monday.

    “It’s time for the United States to return to the system that made us richer and more powerful than ever before,” he added. “You know, the United States in 1870 to 1913, all tariffs. And that was the richest period in the history of the United States, relatively speaking.”

    The first federal income tax was passed on February 25, 1913, as part of the 16th Amendment. This gave Congress constitutional authority to levy taxes on corporate and individual income, according to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

    WHITE HOUSE ECONOMIST TEASES THE ‘BIGGEST’ FISCAL REFORM ‘AMERICAN HAS EVER SEEN’

    U.S. Treasury data indicates that $4.92 trillion was collected in federal income taxes for the 2023 filing year. But as Trump plans to create a new “External Revenue Service” that would be tasked with collecting revenue from tariffs, economists and market experts seem mixed, with some pushing back and noting that U.S. importers bear the brunt of the cost of tariffs rather than firms overseas.

    President Donald Trump pitched the idea to eliminate federal income tax during his address at a GOP conference in Doral, Florida, on Monday. (Getty Images)

    “Tariffs are not external revenue; they are taxes on U.S. importers that shrink both the U.S. economy and U.S. incomes. Higher tariffs will create a drag on the U.S. economy and will threaten to offset the benefits of tax cuts elsewhere. They should not be relied upon as a major source of tax revenue,” Tax Foundation Vice President Erica York previously told FOX Business.

    “Markets like certainty. So if you tell me, ‘10% tariff,’ if I’m a company like GM, I can handle that,” Taylor Riggs, “The Big Money Show” co-host, pointed out on Tuesday. “If you tell me that every month it’s going up by 2.5%, I have a hard time planning around that, because how do I figure out: do I buy the goods now? What if the tariffs go up? Is it a negotiating tool?”

    “This whole idea about eliminating the income tax, or redefining it and coming in with a 10% tariff tax and giving an income tax break to Americans, encourages them to work more, in my opinion, encourages them to spend more, in my opinion,” Slatestone Wealth chief market strategist Kenny Polcari also chimed in.

     Trump senior advisor for trade and manufacturing Peter Navarro discusses the battle over TikTok and bringing ‘prosperity’ to the United States on ‘The Claman Countdown.’

    “So then you end up having a stronger and better economy,” Polcari continued. “I think the market likes it.”

    During his successful campaign to return to the White House, Trump touted plans to impose an across-the-board tariff of 10% or 20% – as well as a larger tariff of 60% on goods imported from China.

    He also threatened to impose a 25% tariff on goods from Canada and Mexico, which are both parties to the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) – a free trade agreement Trump negotiated during his first term as a successor to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

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    Walser Wealth Management President Rebecca Walser and Culture+Group CEO and co-founder Lili Gil Valletta discuss which world leaders will cave to President Trump’s tariff threats on ‘Making Money.’

    More recently, President Trump also teased moving nearly 90,000 IRS agents hired under the Biden administration to the border to patrol the area.

    Democrats in 2022 approved $80 billion in funding for the IRS, including hiring roughly 87,000 new agents across a 10-year period as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. President Joe Biden signed the legislation into law that year.

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    FOX Business’ Eric Revell and Fox News’ Emma Colton contributed to this report.