April showers do not mean rainbows and flowers for everyone, especially when tax day comes around. For entrepreneurs and businesses, this time of year means wading through a variety of IRS forms trying to be as legal as possible or handing over a wad of cash to the local tax professional to take care of their government woes. Not to mention the chunk of change due to Uncle Sam.

I ended my first business in December 2014. We didn’t profit from the venture, we made back close to what we put into it and were closing up to move on to new opportunities. Instead of being able to focus on the new business full-time, I found significant time and stress devoted to telling the government that we were done operating and didn’t make any money! My state government wanted to charge me a fee to close my business (in addition to some lovely paperwork). I guess that’s one way to keep businesses operating, make it too hard to close. Most of my headaches were with the IRS, primarily navigating form 1065 (even though I didn’t owe any taxes). I spent weeks trying to make sure I filled out this form properly, which was my only option because I certainly couldn’t afford a tax professional. We were an extremely small operation that didn’t make any money, I can only imagine the challenges experienced by others with more complicated operations (feel free to tell your story in the comments).

If you haven’t been through the lovely tax and regulatory journey of entrepreneurship on your own yet, I suggest checking out the IRS small business forms as a tutorial. These issues aren’t as overwhelming for big businesses, but for a new entrepreneur or the local small business, the regulations, taxes, and fees are very costly and subsequently discouraging.

In the study of economics we understand that entrepreneurial activity is essential to long-term economic success in a country (you can take my word for it as a soon-to-graduate economics student, or check out this Fraser Institute publication: “What America’s Decline in Economic Freedom Means for Entrepreneurship and Prosperity”). As our country falls in economic freedom rankings, regulations keep piling up, and business tax rates continue to be some of the highest in the world, it is imperative we elect a President in 2016 who will address these issues appropriately.

As the Washington Post explored at the launch of his campaign, Rand Paul is an interesting candidate for entrepreneurs to keep their eye on in 2016. In my opinion, Rand Paul is THE candidate for entrepreneurs.

For starters, he plans to eliminate all 70,000+ pages of the IRS code and replace it with a “fair and flat” tax of 14.5% on individuals and businesses. Imagine the time, money, and headaches saved there. Oh and are you annoyed with complicated depreciation schedules? Say goodbye, because if Rand Paul gets his way you can immediately expense all capital purchases. [I apologize if you just hurt yourself by jumping for joy out of your chair…or maybe you’re the standing desk type, so sorry if you pulled your hamstring] Check out his whole tax plan.

Rand Paul gets it when it comes to entrepreneurs, he is one himself. As a politician he wants to get the government out of the way to let entrepreneurs do what entrepreneurs do best: change the world for the better one idea at a time.

Paul certainly isn’t the front runner according to the national polls, but from the outside looking in, he might be the “lean” campaign that can innovate and disrupt the whole election. His team is certainly testing some unique ideas, for example check out this Mashable article about how he is live streaming his whole day on the campaign trail.

Entrepreneurs aren’t the type of people to complain. I used to be a political blogger, I was the type of person to complain. Entrepreneurs overcome. We’re too focused on the success of our business and the satisfaction of our customers to talk with politicians about what gets in our way because more often than not, it’s easier to jump over the obstacle than to have a politician try to move it. I know you are too busy to quit and campaign for the guy, but I would encourage you to throw your support behind him in whatever way you can so hopefully he will be given the opportunity to improve the process for the all of us.

This is the first and probably the last thing I write about the upcoming election. It’s back to the grind for me, I have a startup to run and I’m not going to let the government get in the way of my success, even if it is extremely frustrating at times.

I am an entrepreneur and I support Rand Paul for President in 2016.

[Note: The original working title was “Entrepreneurs for Rand Paul”, the new title seems more appropriate.]