What ever happened to the Republicans being the party that is supposed to support Constitutional rights such as free speech? Fox News sent a clear message when they fired Judge Napolitano, unless you spew the pro-Establishment rhetoric that we want you to spew, you will be fired. Fair an balanced? I don’t think so.

Here is the video that led to Judge Napolitano’s pink slip. I don’t know what you think, but I just watched 4 minutes and 27 seconds of the truth. Live free and prosper my friends.

1.) The Revolution: A Manifesto by Ron Raul

Ron Paul is a leading Libertarian in politics. He is the Libertarian’s political voice in a political arena filled with “The Establishment.” His followers are fanatical, but he’s not well respected by the media, mainly because Ron Paul is what you would consider “anti-establishment.” Ron Paul is the Champion of the Constitution. Ron Paul has never voted for a tax increase, has defended freedom and liberty throughout his illustrious career in Congress, and has stayed true to his message of limited government for the last 30 years. His book, The Revolution, can even be considered the bible for Libertarian views. Fans of Ron Paul should also read End The Fed and Liberty Defined.

2.) What It Means To Be A Libertarian by Charles Murray

Charles Murray is a tremendously popular Libertarian. Charles Murray understands what our Founding Fathers wanted: a free society with strict limits on the federal government and strict protection of the individual. This book is a manifesto calling for smaller government by significantly reducing departments of government. The book has great reviews with 46/50 reviews rating the book with at least 4 out of 5 stars. The core belief of this book is that freedom is the core of human existence and I don’t think there’s any debating that.

3.) It’s Dangerous to Be Right When the Government Is Wrong by Andrew P. Napolitano

I love Judge Napolitano. He’s a no-nonsense straight-shooter. Napolitano doesn’t sensor what he says. He speaks his mind. Judge once had his own television show Freedom Watch on Fox Business, but was fired for giving his honest and frank opinion on the hypocrisy in the United States government. He wasn’t partial either, he tore into both parties and in all areas of politics. Everything Napolitano said was the complete truth, but I guess Fox News didn’t want viewers to hear the truth. I guess Fox News wanted their television hosts to do what they’re told and support the Republic neo-conservative establishment. You will also want to read Lies The Government Told You by Judge Napolitano as well.

4.) The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What’s Wrong With America by Nick Gellespie

Gellespie argues that our current two-party political system is strangling America since each side is hell bent on only one thing: power. This is harming America. What we need is more independent thinkers and a stronger voice for free minds and free markets. You can check out Nick Gellespie’s website Reason.com to learn more about the author. Some readers of this book are calling this book “the most dangerous book for the Republican and Democratic establishment.”

5.) Radical for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement by Brian Doherty

Radical Capitalism can be summed up in the idea that government’s sole purpose is protect the individual’s property from violence and threat. This books explores the origin of Libertarian thinking: who it came from, how it evolved, and the impact it has made on America. Research for the book is based on interviews with several Libertarian thinkers and figures such as Ludwig von Mises, F.A. Hayek, Ayn Rand, Murray Rothbard, and Milton Friedman. This book is a great read on what it means to be a Libertarian.

If you are an employee working for a company that offers a 401(k) Plan, it’s extremely easy to save for retirement. You simply enroll in your employer’s 401(k) Plan and can stash away $16,500 in tax-deferred income for retirement per year. But what are sole proprietors and small-business owners supposed to do if they want to take advantage of retirement accounts?

The first and easiest option for the sole proprietor or small-business owner is to open an IRA — Traditional IRA, Roth IRA, or both. However, you’ll be confined to a maximum $5,000 total contribution to both IRAs if you’re under 50-years-old and get a mere extra $1,000 contribution if you’re over the age of 50. You can’t even contribute $5,000 to both. If you want to fund a Traditional IRA and Roth IRA, your combined contributions cannot exceed $5,000.

There are also further regulations on how much you can contribute to a Roth IRA. If you are single and earn over $120,000, guess what, you cannot contribute to a Roth IRA because you make too much money. Fortunately, as long as you are not covered by an employer-sponsored retirement plan, you can still contribute $5,000 to your Traditional IRA.

You are probably thinking what can I do to save for retirement, take advantage of tax laws, and reduce my current tax burden if I am self-employed or a small-business owner? The plans that you’ll want to explore in more detail include Individual 401(k)s and SEP-IRAs. Like the 401(k), you can significantly reduce your current year taxable income by deferring the taxation my placing it into these retirement accounts. However, setting up and understanding these accounts does not come without headaches.

I am particularly in a rough spot because I have been a self-employed sole proprietor, but I am now thinking of hiring one single employee. An Individual 401(k) would be the perfect retirement vehicle for me if I could rule out the possibility of hiring an employee, but as soon as I hire a full-time employee, the simplicity of the Individual 401(k) goes out the window and I’ll have the burden of establishing a regular 401(k) Plan to offer to my employee.

If I hire a part-time employee who works less than 1,000 hours per year (slightly less than 20 hours per week), I am still eligible for an Individual 401(k), but as soon as I hire a full-time employee or a part-time employee who works over that 1,000 hour limitation, I am forced to offering them a regular 401(k) Plan.

What’s the alternative to the 401(k) for the small-business owner with one single employee? The alternative would be the SEP-IRA. An SEP-IRA can be setup regardless of whether or not you have employees and has similar tax-deferring benefits as the 401(k). The SEP-IRA has 401(k)-like advantages in that you can receive a substantial deduction for contributions made towards the plan. You can contribute up to $49,000 per year and defer the taxation of that income. The limit on your contribution is 20% of your net adjusted self-employment income, which is a fancy way of saying take your gross income, subtract your business expenses, and then half of your self-employment tax.

The SEP-IRA comes with a whole host of regulations. The SEP-IRA requires IRS Form 5305 stating the rules for who is an eligible employee. Essentially, if you have an employee who is over 21-years-old, earns over $450, and has worked for you in three of the last five years, the employee is entitled to contributions under the SEP-IRA. While contributions to the SEP-IRA are completely voluntary, if you have an eligible employee and make a contribution to your SEP-IRA, you must also contribute to your employee’s SEP-IRA proportionately. Further, all contributions to the SEP-IRA are made by the employer. An employee cannot make contributions to their SEP-IRA.

After we work through our options, if you are a small business owner with just one single employee and want to take advantage of retirement accounts, you’ll have to setup a 401(k) Plan or establish a SEP-IRA.

Why can’t Congress simply pass an Act that states that small-business owners with less than 50 employees that do not have a 401(k) Plan can contribute up to $16,500 to their IRA so they can receive the benefits of a 401(k) without having to go through the headache, hassle, and cost of setting up their own 401(k) Plan? Congress should do more to encourage small business owners to save more for retirement.

DISLCAIMER: This article is for educational purposes only. This article is not intended to create or provide financial advice. The information in this article is not guaranteed to be reliable or accurate. Please seek the advice of your independent financial advisor before making any financial decisions.

With the 2012 elections right around the corner, many people are looking to the republican party to do something huge. However, with probable front runners Huckabee and Trump dropping out, it has me scratching my head. Now don’t take what I say out of context. I love my parents are grandparents very much but it is the baby boomer generation that has gotten us into this mess. Everyone wants to call our twenty-something generation incapable and lazy but I think that we have had enough of these “bipartisan” teams that get nothing done. In a time where most politicians are part of the baby boomer generation, things are the worst since the great depression. We need new politics. Young, passionate, men and women who have the best interest of their fellow Americans in mind.

Here is the point that I want to tie this all into. America has lost our “idea”. We have so many other major “ideas” such as sharia law (islamic law) or communism, fighting against us. Up until the 1970′s, Americans everywhere would fight for freedom, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I feel as though, in a lot of cases, people feel like the work is done and we have reached our peek. I strongly disagree. Although I think that Americans protect nothing except for “things” nowadays (such as oil, houses, and property [which are somewhat necessary things]), we can revert back to a strong belief and faith in our ideals. America was built on ideals. Separation from England and self sustainment. We were an “idea” of freedom, and every capable man and woman played a role in protecting our liberty. I do believe that we can be that again but it takes time and work that our current politicians try to pawn off on the many government agencies underneath them. I just want people to understand how crucial this is. As I stated at the beginning of this article, we have so many large issues at hand. We do not have time to argue anymore. We keep telling ourselves that we have more time but we do not. If you are reading this, I hope that you will hear me and see what really is happening. We need to find our “idea” again and push back the infiltrating viewpoints that are trying to undermine our ideals.

To borrow a line from Billy Madison: “Ms. Palin, what you’ve just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.”

Ron Paul’s reaction to Ben Bernanke’s speach.

My fiance Leah asked me yesterday where I see our nation and our personal lives in ten years. Let me start by saying that I am extraordinarily proud of being an American. I love this great nation and I could not imagine living anywhere else in this world. Our nation was founded by a group of men who loved our country and the idea of liberty even more. Our ancestors came to this land to escape the monarchy of Great Britain and live in a place where they could worship freely and thrive in a competitive and free market.

I am sick and tired of people in our own country saying that a socialistic society is a better economic plan than capitalism. As most people know, socialism and communism are similar but different, in that, socialism is an economic system, whereas communism is a political system. The more well-known communistic nations are: North Korea, Cuba, Russia, and China. Now, although countries like China (a free communistic society) seem to be well off and have everything they need taken care of, the normal wage of a working Chinese person is $10,000 per year. They live in the same colossal buildings that they work in. Their bedrooms are small, cramped, dorm-style rooms with four, maybe five family members in each.

Foxconn, a factory in China that manufactures Apple products such as iPhone’s, iPad’s, and iPod’s. The company itself employs 400,000 people. They are asked to sign an overtime agreement so that the managers can have their subordinates work obnoxiously long hours. By signing this agreement, the workers MUST work whatever hours the management makes them. In recent years, there has been nine suicide attempts and seven confirmed deaths. The workers make 900 Chinese Yuan ($130) per week. They cannot even afford the products that they themselves build. They are forced to stand for their entire shift and some of the workers admit that they would think about dropping something on the floor so that they could bend over and rest for a second to pick it back up. In fact, the workers are forbidden from friendships with one another for fear that they might unionize. These are the working conditions of the “most successful” communistic society in the world. Now I don’t know about anyone else but I would NOT like to live this way.

Everyone wants to blame the wealthy for our nations financial issues. However, capitalism thrives on competition and motivation. When one business fails, another will eventually rise from the ashes. When Henry Ford manufactured the first automobile, he put a man named William Durant, the leading manufacturer of horse drawn vehicles, out of business. Mr. Durant did not blame Henry Ford for his failure, nor did he beg our government for a bail out. William Durant went on to start a new company in Detroit, Michigan named GENERAL MOTORS! This is the same company that our government bailed out not even a few years ago. Some businesses fail while others expand. It is not always fair, but it works and it has for over three hundred years.

The point that I am trying to make is that when there is a reason to succeed, people will always strive to be the best. When companies become “too big to fail” it eliminates the motivation to be successful. The fear of failure drives business to the top, I believe. No company is too big to fail and when one does, inevitably fail, there will ALWAYS be an innovative and motivated business to take its place.

To be honest, I do not know where I see the United States of America in ten years from now. However, I do know that if we continue to stray from our capitalistic, free market, we could be destined to fail. I believe that we need to preserve our standards for success and always encourage innovation. Competition, and the fear of failure will continue to drive our economy and will continue to motivate people across the land. Anyone from anywhere can make something of themselves in this great nation and I do not ever want that to change.

- Joe Piperato

If some ordinary business expenses get the boot or are limited as permissible deductions, I believe it would have a chilling effect on the economy. I highly doubt that the tax code would be amended to reflect a tax based on revenue with zero deductions rather than net income after deductions, but you never know what Washington is capable of. Washington wouldn’t be able to tax revenue since deductions for things such as the cost of goods sold and advertising are essential and without these deductions, businesses will be broke. However, what if deductions for things like business equipment are eliminated? To illustrate why this is such a bad idea, I’ll demonstrate the effect this would have on business spending and taxation.

Let’s assume that a software business in California that has 50 employees generated a net profit of $1 million. We’ll assume that they’re in the 35% tax bracket and taxed $350,000 on that $1 million leaving them with $650,000 of after-tax profit.

Now, come the end of the year, they’re likely celebrating their success and thinking of reinvesting those profits back into their business to expand and give them a competitive advantage. Perhaps they’re thinking of upgrading their office equipment.

Now let’s assume that the company has decided to upgrade all their employee’s office equipment such as computers, printers, and the like. The company wishes to spend $250,000 on upgrading their equipment.

Thanks to the new tax laws, rather than pro-rating their deduction over the period of the useful life of the equipment such as 5 years, the company can take a full deduction in the current tax year. This tax law was passed by Obama to encourage businesses to spend money.

Now the business can write off $250,000 for a net pre-tax profit of $750,000. Assuming they’re taxed at the a 33% level (just to arrive at some nice round numbers), this will generate $250,000 in tax income for the government, leaving the company’s after-tax profit of $500,000. Essentially, this company received $250,000 worth of equipment for a price of $150,000 thanks to the tax break.

We’ll assume that their computer equipment was purchased from HP and that all income was earned and reported in the United States. HP will now have earned $250,000 from this software company, which resulted in $87,500 of additional tax revenue for the IRS.

Now if the Republican plan to lower the tax rate to 25% while eliminating some deductions is passed, the company would have to pony up $250,00 in taxes regardless of whether or not they upgrade their company’s equipment.  If they do purchase the equipment and are taxed 25% without the deduction, they now have a net profit of $500,000 and are in the same position they were in if the tax rate was 35% and they took the deduction. However, without the deduction, now you’ve provided them in incentive not to purchase business equipment which would increase HP’s sales by $250,000 resulting in another $87,500 in tax revenue from HP.

To summarize, whether the tax rate is 35% with this particular deduction or 25% without this deduction, it basically has the same effect on tax revenue. However, you’ve eliminated any incentive for businesses to reinvest their profits in the business by purchasing equipment needed to expand if this particular deduction is eliminated, which in turn results in even less tax revenue. Assuming those profits are going to American companies, those earnings can then be taxed, ultimately producing even more revenue for the IRS.

Although the tax code needs some reform, I don’t believe a complete overhaul is necessary. Yeah, it’s complicated and convoluted, but it keeps CPAs in business and most of the tax deductions serve good public policy.