Tag: taxation

By John Stark

The Tax Foundation has issued its annual ranking of the 50 states according to their tax climate for business, and Washington state ranks high again because of this state’s lack of an income tax.

The Evergreen state’s sixth-place rank for 2013 is the same as last year’s.  The state ranked 8th in 2011.

Here’s a link to the full report.

But the state’s sales tax is panned by the report’s authors.

“The ideal base for sales taxation is all goods and services at the point of sale to the end user,” the report says.

But Washington and some other states levy their sales taxes on business-to-business transactions, including purchases of new factory equipment.

“Companies have been known to avoid locating factories or facilities in certain states because the factory’s machinery would be subject to the state’s sales tax,” the report says.