Best States for a Startup Business

If you are thinking about creating a startup business, you should know that not all states are created equal. Recently, the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council ranked the best states in America for startup businesses.

“Taxes have been piling up on small business owners, and the cumulative burden is particularly painful in a down economy like we are suffering right now,” said Raymond Keating, chief economist and the author of the report. “Unfortunately, state and local officials continue to increase a variety of levies without a firm grasp of the burdens they impose on small businesses and their state’s overall competitiveness.”

Here is the criteria used to create the list:

SBE Council’s “Business Tax Index 2009″ pulls together 16 different tax measures, and combines those into one tax score that allows the 50 states and District of Columbia to be compared. Among the taxes included are income, property, death/inheritance, unemployment, and various consumption-based taxes, including state gas and diesel levies.

The top five states on their list are South Dakota, Nevada, Wyoming, Washington and Texas. You can find the complete ranking at the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council website.