The states with the most severe business taxes in the new year are primarily located in the Northeast, while those with environments most welcoming to companies and entrepreneurs are generally in the Great Plains and the South.
Wyoming, South Dakota, and Alaska lead the nation with respect to business-friendly taxes, according to a report from the Tax Foundation, while New Jersey, New York, and California have the worst tax policies for businesses. The analysis from the policy nonprofit noted that top-ranked states share “the absence of a major tax,” while bottom-ranked states tend toward “complex, nonneutral taxes with comparatively high rates.”
“Property taxes and unemployment insurance taxes are levied in every state, but there are several states that do without one or more of the major taxes: the corporate income tax, the individual income tax, or the sales tax,” the analysis continued. On the other hand, New Jersey ranked behind all other states because the tax code establishes “some of the highest property tax burdens in the country,” as well as “the highest-rate corporate income taxes in the county” and “one of the highest-rate individual income taxes.”
Rounding out the top states for business-friendly taxes were Florida, Montana, New Hampshire, Nevada, Utah, Indiana, and North Carolina. The bottom states included Connecticut, Maryland, Minnesota, Vermont, Hawaii, Rhode Island, and Alabama.
Tax Foundation Policy Analyst Janelle Fritts told The Daily Wire that tax policies can either hinder or assist states’ efforts to attract talented workers, as well as induce more rapid improvements to local economies than amendments to healthcare or education policies.
“In comparison to many other long-term changes that states can pursue, tax reforms can immediately help a state’s competitiveness,” she remarked. “States that want to attract businesses and workers should make sure that their tax codes are not standing in the way of growth. They should consider eliminating uncompetitive policies like throwback rules, capital stock taxes, and unfavorable treatment of capital investment, among other reforms.”
States dominated by Democratic officials generally have more significant tax burdens than those led by Republicans. Voters in Massachusetts recently approved a tax hike on millionaires during the midterms, while voters in California rejected a similar measure, even though residents of both states are among the most heavily taxed in the nation. Wealthy households also provide a disproportionate share of federal tax revenue in comparison to other income earners, even relative to wealthy households in other developed countries.
Washington saw the worst slide in the Tax Foundation analysis, dropping from fifteenth to twenty-eighth place over the past year due to the establishment of a state income tax. The Evergreen State, which had previously been buoyed in the rankings due to the absence of an income tax, meanwhile adopted a “capital gains income tax on high earners which contains a sizeable marriage penalty and is not adjusted for inflation,” according to the report.
States that saw improvements in the rankings included Oklahoma, which climbed five places due to a 2% reduction in corporate taxes and a 0.25% cut in individual income taxes. Arizona also climbed five places as the state moved from a four-bracket individual income tax with a top rate of 4.5% to a two-bracket system with a top rate of roughly 3%, a move which constitutes steps toward the adoption of a 2.5% rate in the next tax year.
