I’m an Enrolled Agent tax pro based in California with clients all over the country. Recently, the son of a client who had moved to a more free state than ours asked whether I thought he should move back here to start a business. I suggested not. Why? While California suffers from the highest income tax rate in the country and mountains of regulations that cause everything from housing costs to the price of power to be among the highest, the most destructive regulation of all is arguably an up-and-coming one. It mandates annual increases to the minimum prices of wages. They will go from $10.50 to $15 per hour in five years -- a nearly 50% increase, which will end up at twice the current national minimum wage. I love higher real wages, created by supply and demand and fueled by increasing productivity as people voluntarily interact in the marketplace. But government can’t create wealth by mandate. If it could, why doesn’t it reach all the objectives of a...(Read Full Article)