States with the most competitive business tax systems according to the Tax Foundation‘s most recent State Business Tax Climate Index.
So what do the top ten tanked states have that North Carolina doesn’t? Property taxes and unemployment insurance taxes are levied in every state, but there are several states that score the highest that do without one or more of the major taxes. Wyoming (#1), South Dakota (#2), Nevada (#5), and Texas (#10) have no corporate or individual income tax; Alaska (#3) has no individual income or state-level sales tax; Florida (#4) has no individual income tax; and Montana (#6) and New Hampshire (#7) have no sales tax.
That doesn’t mean that North Carolina (#15) must get rid of one of these taxes to make the top 10, although that does help. For example, Indiana (#8) and is Utah (#9) both levy all of the major tax types, but do so with low rates on broad bases.
The state on the bottom of the list is New Jersey, coming in at #50. New Jersey ranks this way because it has some of the highest property tax burdens in the country, is one of just two states to levy both an inheritance tax and an estate tax, and maintains some of the worst structured individual income taxes in the country.