Business Friendliness
Which states are friendly to small businesses? Graphic by Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council
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Wyoming Ranks 3rd for Small Business friendliness
October 16, 2005
Each year, the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council puts out their "Small Business Survival Index", which is a ranking of the policy environment for entrepreneurship across the nation. The ranking is now in its 10th year of rating states for how their policies, tax measures, and other factors rate for friendliness to entrepreneurs and small businesses across the industry spectrum, from home-based businesses to high-tech firms, to manufacturers, and everything in-between. The Index analyzes 26 factors including government-imposed or government-related costs that affect businesses. Wyoming ranked 3rd in the 2005 Index.
The Index analyzes taxes, regulatory measures such as various health care mandates and state minimum wages, regulatory flexibility, workers’ compensation premiums and other factors.
South Dakota rated #1, Nevada #2 and Wyoming was rated the 3rd most-friendly State. The District of Columbia rated dead last, with Maine and California taking the 49th and 50th place spots.
According to Raymond J. Keating, chief economist for the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, ."Consider a key difference between the top four states and the bottom four. South Dakota, Nevada, Wyoming and Washington impose absolutely no personal income, corporate income or capital gains taxes. That combination provides a huge competitive advantage on the public policy front."
"Number 50, California also levies burdensome personal income (9.3% top rate), capital gains (9.3%), and corporate income (8.84%) taxes, plus individual and corporate alternative minimum tax (AMTs). California is one of the few states that slaps an additional income tax on S-Corporations as well, in addition to owners being taxed at the individual level," said Keating
District of Columbia, which ranks last on the Index, has a 9% personal income tax, a 9% capital gains tax, and a 9.975% corporate income tax. That corporate rate gets added on to S-Corporations as well.
"So, do elected officials in South Dakota, Nevada, Wyoming and Washington care more about entrepreneurship than those in Rhode Island, Maine, California and the District of Columbia? Objectively, the answer is ‘yes.’ After all, the policies affecting small businesses are so much less burdensome in the top four states than in the bottom four," said Keating.
Related Links:
Ranging from Nice to Nasty – How States Treat Entrepreneurship
by Raymond J. Keating, Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council (10/13/05)
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