No business taxes?

May 21, 2008 3:50 PM

Is it true that if you have a business in New Hampshire or Nevada, there are less (or no) taxes than in California. Are other states like this, if so, which ones? Share your experience or direct me to a succinct, layperson site to understanding this. Thanks.
posted by healthyliving to law & government (8 comments total)

There might be state tax laws that only tax state income derived from that state only, or tax income for businesses who incorporated in that state. I do not have any specific examples though.
posted by toaster at 3:55 PM on May 21

There's a list of state business income tax rates here. According to the Federation of Tax Administrators: "Nevada, Washington, and Wyoming do not have state corporate income taxes."
posted by GuyZero at 3:55 PM on May 21

Nevada has no corporate income tax, no personal income tax and no inventory tax.
posted by HotPatatta at 3:55 PM on May 21

Washington has a gross receipts tax. Texas has something similar, but it doesn't kick in until $300K.
posted by and for no one at 5:40 PM on May 21

It costs $800 in annual fees for a corporation in CA, whereas here in Idaho I think it is $8.

You can incorporate in another state that you don't reside in as long as you have a resident agent (someone who lives in that state who takes in your mail). You can hire these people easily.

We've used Parasec to incorporate clients. If you call them they may be able to tell you the best place to incorporate in your situation.

I've also heard good things about legalzoom.com

My CPA says a lot of people shouldn't incorporate because they just won't save that much money especially considering they will probably forget the paperwork upkeep and incur fines.

I would start by reading about incorporating on Wikipedia.
posted by cda at 7:17 PM on May 21

New Hampshire has no income tax and no sales tax. Property taxes tend to be high, though.
posted by ClaudiaCenter at 9:04 PM on May 21

If it does make sense for you to incorporate in another state or not depends on your circumstances!

Two tips:

Use this for incorporation: http://www.incorp.com/

Buy this book: http://www.amazon.com/Incorporate-Grow-Rich-Cheri-Hill/dp/0967187109

It also shows you how you can still use a Nevada Inc if you HAVE to incorporate in your home state (tunneling license fees to a Nevada parent company etc.).
posted by yoyo_nyc at 9:12 PM on May 21

Many firms prefer to incorporate in Delaware.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:51 AM on May 22