Small Business Survival Index 2010 : Is Your State Hostile to Small Business ??????????

[Jerksticks]

Why would Delaware be a bad one; don't the majority of corporations file their articles there?

[StealthRabbit]

Originally Posted by RenaudFR

What do you think about it ?

I think they have CO and WA reversed, but need to understand their criteria.

Originally Posted by eskercurve

Washington State is a small business haven. ....
On the bad side, though, is also listed on the website. ... In all I think it is a pretty good state to do business in.

I will say I agree with the comment on the site from oddhan 12/10/10 12:46

I think WA is very poor to do business in as an entrepreneur, but largely under specific issues.

B&O tax is based on GROSS not NET revenue (that is down right scary!!)

Personal Property and Use Tax can absolutely sink a business with High Capital equipment needs (or too many paper clips, inventory, or trash cans on hand ). Thus MANY (many) businesses are fleeing WA and setting up shop in ID, and EVEN OR

The WA DOR is very involved in auditing and YOU WILL be audited and likely some little rule will make you delinquent and you WILL BE fined and levied a hefty interest / penalty. Then you will get to be audited MORE frequently (Oh Boy, that is time well spent as an entrepreneur )

DO NOT... I repeat DO NOT try to do your payroll / L&I manually ESPECIALLY if you have multiple classes of workers. This will take you longer and more energy than inventing your product (and you WILL do it wrong...) (again )

I think WA MIGHT be good to do business in IF you are a softwre developer and have NO / FEW tangible BUSINESS Assets. (And even less employees, certainly none that require L&I... btw: you don't want to be a 'logger' or fisherman !!!! L&I rates will KILL you if the trees, fish, sea, or owls don't first)

[rkcarguy]

Originally Posted by StealthRabbit

I think they have CO and WA reversed, but need to understand their criteria.



I will say I agree with the comment on the site from oddhan 12/10/10 12:46

I think WA is very poor to do business in as an entrepreneur, but largely under specific issues.

B&O tax is based on GROSS not NET revenue (that is down right scary!!)

Personal Property and Use Tax can absolutely sink a business with High Capital equipment needs (or too many paper clips, inventory, or trash cans on hand ). Thus MANY (many) businesses are fleeing WA and setting up shop in ID, and EVEN OR

The WA DOR is very involved in auditing and YOU WILL be audited and likely some little rule will make you delinquent and you WILL BE fined and levied a hefty interest / penalty. Then you will get to be audited MORE frequently (Oh Boy, that is time well spent as an entrepreneur )

DO NOT... I repeat DO NOT try to do your payroll / L&I manually ESPECIALLY if you have multiple classes of workers. This will take you longer and more energy than inventing your product (and you WILL do it wrong...) (again )

I think WA MIGHT be good to do business in IF you are a softwre developer and have NO / FEW tangible BUSINESS Assets. (And even less employees, certainly none that require L&I... btw: you don't want to be a 'logger' or fisherman !!!! L&I rates will KILL you if the trees, fish, sea, or owls don't first)

Agreed. A small business can succeed in WA, but you either need to stay small as a sole proprieter, go large-or go home. Labor based business's work-provided you can overcome the labor costs. Brokerage type work(wholesale sales where you move large volumes of product/value at a low % markup) will eat you alive in B&O taxes. You move $1,000,000 in merchandise, and profit only 5%, better be ready to pay taxes on that $1M!

You can always count on overlapping grey area verbage to make running your business difficult here. Licensing will say ok, zoning will say no, city will disagree with both. Making one happy will raise another problem with a different dept. It's not "yes we can" in WA state, it's "you can't do that".

I've owned a small business in WA, can say I will NEVER make that mistake again.

[Wonderful Jellal]

It's sad about WA state :/

[pvande55]

I heard a speaker say a "small business" is one with revenues between $500,000 and $1 million annually. What if your business takes in less than half a million? I guess that makes it microscopic.