The Tax Foundation releases an annual report comparing the various U.S. states’ business tax climates. This year’s report is out, and I think it is well worth a read.
The Rankings
- The top 5 “Good Climate” states are: Wyoming, South Dakota, Alaska, Florida and Nevada.
- My home state, Oregon, is number 10.
- California, just to my south, is number 40.
- The bottom 5 states are: Vermont, Ohio, Rhode Island, New Jersey, and New York.
Why?
In the article, they point out that it is very simple. Basically, the winning climate states are missing one or more of the “big three” taxes: business tax, personal income tax, or sales tax. The losing states have all three types of tax, with one or more of them very heavily weighted.
As a personal observation, the more hostile states also try to extract money in ways not measured here. For example, registering my LLC cost me $55 here in Oregon. If I were to register in California, the fee would be $90, almost double. Were I to be so foolish as to register with California as a “foreign LLC”, the fee would be in excess of $1000. Ouch.
Found via the Carnival of Entrepreneurship #8, and Professor Bainbridge
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