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FINANCIAL PRODUCTS SOLD ONLINE | FUZZY MATH | CORPORATE MERGERS HAVE NONPROFITS CONCERNED OVER FUNDING CUTS | NET USERS TEND TO BE OLDER
FINANCIAL PRODUCTS SOLD ONLINE
A recent
Harris Interactive survey shows that investment customers are the most
likely to purchase products online, with 63% of brokerage customers
and 36% of mutual fund customers having purchased online. Outside the
investment arena, the product purchases drop significantly: banking
loan or credit line, 8%; mortgage, 7%; auto insurance, 5%; life insurance,
2%; and property insurance, 1%.
(taken from fsonline.com)
In the presidential debate in Boston, Governor Bush accused Vice President Gore of "fuzzy math." Vice President Gore claimed that Mr. Bush would spend more on the tax cut for the top one-percent than he will spend on education, health care, prescription drugs and defense. Who is right in the tax battle of 2000? Not surprisingly, the web sites of both candidates claim that each is correct.
According to www.algore2000.com, the Bush estate tax cut and income tax cut for the top one-percent will cost $388 billion. By the Gore campaign calculation, Mr. Bush's funding for new programs for education, health care, prescription drugs and defense will total $382.5 billion. Thus, the Gore campaign claims that it is accurate to state that the tax benefits for the top one-percent are more than new spending for the other four categories.
On the other hand, www.georgewbush.com states that the benefits of a Bush tax cut will be very broad-based. The family of four making $35,000 receives a 100% federal income tax cut. A family with $50,000 in income receives a 50% cut. The family with $75,000 of income receives a 35% cut.
Under current law, a single mother with two children currently starts paying taxes at $21,300, while the Bush plan would require her to pay no tax until her income reaches $31,300. Finally, under the Bush proposal, people with incomes over $100,000 will pay 64% of all income tax, rather than the current 62% total currently paid by those upper-income taxpayers.
Editors Note: This debate is similar to the two men looking at different parts of the elephant. The Gore campaign is correct that the Bush proposal involves substantial reductions in income and estate taxes for the wealthiest Americans. Yet, the Bush campaign is also correctly observing that modest income persons could receive a 100% tax cut and that the income tax system becomes more progressive under the Bush plan.
(By GiftLaw editor A. Charles Schultz)
CORPORATE MERGERS HAVE NONPROFITS CONCERNED OVER FUNDING CUTS
Two recently announced corporate mergers have charities worried that they may lose funding as part of the merged entities' belt-tightening.
The proposed merger of oil giants Chevron and Texaco could mean less funding for New York cultural causes and for a range of nonprofits worldwide, the New York Post reports. According to the Post, the companies plan to slash $1 billion in costs as part of the merger, and charitable contributions could be cut in the effort. While Chevron does much of its funding in California and Texaco focuses on the East Coast, charities in more than 100 countries around the world rely on the two companies for contributions to a range of causes. A spokesman for Chevron said that community involvement would remain a "high priority" for the merged company.
In Minnesota, charitable leaders are expressing concern over the merger of Honeywell International and General Electric. As part of the deal with GE, Honeywell chairman and chief executive officer Michael Bonsignore will become a member of the GE board of directors. The Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune reports that many nonprofit leaders in the state link the company's strong support for local charitable causes to the involvement of Bonsignore and are concerned by his reassignment. For the time being, Honeywell executives have said that the company will match in 2000 the roughly $7.1. million it contributed to state organizations in 1999.
(Tharp, Paul. "Charities May Lose Key Source of Funds." New York Post 10/17/2000)
One of the conclusions in a survey released late October by the Gartner Group, a market research firm, states that Internet users appear to be a bit older than is suggested by conventional wisdom. The average U.S. Internet user is 41 years old.
The survey of 40,000 American Adults also determined that the average U.S. Internet user:
- is married,
- has 2.81 children,
- is employed,
- has a household income of $65,000,
- uses a personal computer at work.
U.S. Internet users are evenly divided between males and females. Although rounded out to 50/50, there are actually slightly more females online than males.