Author Archive

The W-4 Form is used by employers to calculate the amount of tax they should withhold from their employees’ wages, salary, or other monetary compensation. Strangely, though it should match the tax due on 1040 series IRS forms, the two amounts frequently differ substantially!

The W-2 Form is used to report wages paid and taxes withheld. Officially known as the Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement, employers must complete one for every employee that receives wage, salary, or other compensation as a result of work performed.

The use of an I-9 Form is mandated by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) bureau of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to establish worker eligibility.

Green energy. You hear about it all the time these days. The U.S. needs it. China is getting ever more involved with it. Green energy. But what does it all mean? Our newspapers tell us that it is the wave of the future, the only way forward. Yet nothing is happening in this nation, where most green technologies have been invented, and it’s China that seems poised to dominate this industry of the 21st Century.

The 1099 Form is filed on behalf of independent contractors in the United States every year as required by law. Independent contractors are persons or businesses that provide goods or services to another individual or corporation within the terms of a contract or verbal agreement.

State tax forms are required to file state taxes – but where is our tax money going? Taxes are utilized to support the government, but in a democracy the government is supposed to be “for the people,” as a popular rumor has it. All the state tax forms filed year in, year out seem to have no effect on our local governments, which across the country are a lot more likely than not operating at a deficit. How is this possible with all the money pouring into government coffers?

A patent is a government-granted monopoly. Everybody is head over heels in love with the idea of patenting something. It appears quintessentially American, that if you invent something you should have exclusive rights to making profits off of it. To paraphrase President Abraham Lincoln’s own take on it, the patent system adds the fuel of self-interest to the fire of genius.

The Wagah Crossing along the India-Pakistan border is host to maybe the most unusual sight on all of the earth. It is at this small point on a map, the sole border crossing between nuclear rivals India and Pakistan, a daily evening rite has been performed for the last sixty-three years and counting. It’s the closing of the gate, and as laughable as it is solemn.

It has become so fashionable to decry “big government” that if it were any other trend it would became almost pass and out of fashion. But suspicions remain high, and as the sentiment goes back to the very founding of the Republic indeed, the Revolution was waged against giant, faraway government it is going to be hard to convince otherwise perfectly reasonable americans why more government, not less, is important to achieve that generous society we all believe in.

It’s a radical idea but perhaps one whose time has finally come. Recently, the United States Supreme Court held that, as a legal entity with legal person-hood, corporations also have the right to contribute campaign funds in amounts commensurate with those allowed for real people.