Montana Ranks 6th on Tax Competitiveness

Montana has the 6th most competitive tax code in the nation, according to the 12th annual edition of the State Business Tax Climate Index released this morning by the nonpartisan Tax Foundation. The report measures how well-structured each state’s tax code is by analyzing over 100 tax variables in five different categories: corporate, individual income, sales, property, and unemployment insurance taxes.

The breakdown of Montana ranking this year is as follows (1st is best, 50th is worst):

Overall Tax Climate: #6
Corporate tax structure: #23
Individual income tax structure: #20
Sales tax structure: #3
Property tax structure: #9
Unemployment insurance tax structure: #18

States are punished for overly complex, burdensome, and economically harmful tax codes but are rewarded for transparent and neutral tax codes that do not distort business decisions. A state’s ranking can rise or fall significantly not only because of its own actions, but also because of changes or reforms made in other states.

(Tax Foundation contributed to this post)