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April 15, 2009

Maine's taxes earn poor score

Maine has the fourth-worst tax system for small businesses, according to a new report from the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council, an organization based in Oakton, Va.

The "Business Tax Index 2009" report measured 16 tax indicators, including tax rates for personal and corporate income, unemployment and property, and combined them into one score. Maine received an overall score of 49.860, ranking it number 48 out of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, according to the report. Out of the categories, the state scored the best in unemployment tax on wages, at number 27. It scored the worst for state and local property taxes, at number 49.

South Dakota ranked number 1 with an overall score of 11.120, according to the report. Read the entire report here.

Reader comments

From Michael

This is downright criminal considering Maine's business survivability. Between high energy costs, labor shortages and high health care costs you have to be either crazy or stupid to start and run a business here. Its no wonder we see small businesses get eaten up by large out of state businesses over and over. Again, money shifted out of state by the bucketloads.  

From Brian

We see this ranking every year; no surprises in the list. Might as well run a "list" of states that have the most firms that were caught cheating on their tax returns.

Of course what is always left out is a modelled economic difference between the states. For example, what is the full corporate tax burden on a generic retailer with income of $300K? A light industry business with income of $1M? Is the difference between the top states 5%? 25%? Does that equate to $5k? $50K? What are the other business financial impediments? Tax is not the only issue facing business today. Energy costs and real estate costs are often bigger impacts to a business than taxes.

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