Chamber Applauds Tax Ranking

Montana Chamber Applauds Tax Ranking

The Montana Chamber of Commerce, the state’s leading business advocate, today applauded a study by The Tax Foundation, listing Montana with the ninth best business tax climate in the nation. “We are tickled that Montana has not only received such a high mark,” noted Webb Brown, President/CEO, “but that we actually moved up four notches in the list from the last such report.”

The Tax Foundation completed similar studies in 2004 and 2003, with Montana moving up from 13th in those prior years. “We can definitely point to our efforts to reform the individual income tax as reason for the positive change,” said Brown. In the 2003 and 2004 studies, Montana ranked 47th worst in the nation. Following successful reform measures that just took effect this past year, Montana jumped all the way up to 21st in the country.

Unfortunately, Montana lost ground in its corporate income tax index, dropping two places, from 15th to 17th this year. Changes were negligible in the three other indexes: sales tax (current ranking 5th); unemployment insurance tax (24th); and wealth taxes (23rd).

The states in the top ten included two neighbors of Montana and four other Western states:

1. Wyoming
2. South Dakota
3. Alaska
4. Florida
5. Nevada
6. New Hampshire
7. Texas
8. Delaware
9. Montana
10. Oregon

“Rather than rest on our laurels, we’ve still got work to do,” said Brown. “We want to have the most business-friendly tax structure in America.”

While this is good news, the study doesn’t come without criticism. This year, the authors used a weighting system that puts most emphasis on individual income tax, then sales taxes, so Montana made big gains. The authors give more points to states with only two of three tax structures – business/corporate, individual, and sales taxes. Others would argue a more balanced approach with lower rates may be more preferred. The study also doesn’t address property taxation.

“While we take all these studies with a grain of salt,” added Brown, “we will definitely use this study as another tool for business recruitment. It shows the progress we have made in keeping Montana open for business.”

The full study can be found at www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/78.html.


Webb Scott Brown, CAE, President/CEO
Montana Chamber of Commerce - your business advocate
incl.: Montana Liability Coalition, Montana Manufacturing Council, and Montana Assn. of Chamber Executives
2030 Eleventh Avenue, Suite 21 / PO Box 1730
Helena, Montana 59624-1730
406-442-2405 ext. 101 / 406-442-2409 fax / 406-431-9508 cell
www.montanachamber.net / webb@montanachamber.com
or:
Webb Brown, Executive Vice President
Montana Chamber Foundation
incl.: Governors' Cup, High School Business Challenge
406-443-7888
PO Box 1162
Helena MT 59624-1162