Noteworthy on the Web
Washington’s business tax structure is the nation’s fifth-best, according to a report [Google cached version] by the Small Business &Entrepreneurship Council (whose website, as of this writing, was not working):
The Small Business &Entrepreneurship Council’s “Business Tax Index 2012” ranks the states from best to worst in terms of the costs of their tax systems on entrepreneurship and small business. The Index pulls together 18 different tax measures, and combines those into one tax score that allows the 50 states and District of Columbia to be compared and ranked.
The 18 measures are: 1) state’s top personal income tax rate, 2) state’s top individual capital gains tax rate, 3) state’s top corporate income tax rate, 4) state’s top corporate capital gains tax rate, 5) any added income tax on S-Corporations, 6) whether or not the state imposes an alternative minimum tax on individuals, 7) whether or not the state imposes an alternative minimum tax on corporations, 8) whether or not the state’s personal income tax brackets are indexed for inflation, 9) property taxes, 10) consumption-based taxes (i.e., sales, gross receipts and excise taxes), 11) whether or not the state imposes a death tax, 12) unemployment taxes, 13) whether or not the state has a tax limitation mechanism, 14) whether or not the state imposes an Internet access tax, 15) “Amazon” taxes, 16) gas tax, 17) diesel tax, and 18) wireless taxes.
The only states ranked higher than Washington are South Dakota (1), Texas (2), Nevada (3) and Wyoming (4).
In other media
Mining a $20 trillion asteroid? New clues emerge about space robot startup (GeekWire): Next Tuesday, heavyweights from the aerospace and tech spheres plan a big announcement at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, unveiling a company called Planetary Resources. It’s a Seattle-area startup, but some of the proper nouns involved are global: Larry Page, Eric Schmidt, James Cameron and Peter Diamandis, among them.
Manufacturing propels state’s job growth (Seattle Times): A fairly detailed overview of recent growth in manufacturing jobs in Washington.
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