by CLC Staff

Great news continues to pile up for the Old North State.

North Carolina was just named the nation’s ninth-best state for its business climate, its best score ever, according to the non-partisan Tax Foundation’s 2024 State Business Tax Climate Index. The Tar Heel state moved up one place from last year’s ranking at #10, first breaking into the top ten in the group’s 2021 index. As recently as a decade ago, before our conservative-led legislature implemented a series of pro-growth tax reforms, North Carolina found itself among the worst states in the nation, placing 44th in 2013.

The Tax Foundation’s methodology includes weighted rankings of the corporate tax rate, the individual income tax rate, the sales tax rate, the property tax rate, and the unemployment insurance tax rates.

North Carolina has a 4.75 percent state sales tax rate, a flat 4.75 percent individual income tax rate, which will be lowered to 3.99% over the next three years (4.5% in 2024; 4.25% in 2025; and 3.99% for all tax years thereafter). The individual income tax rate could be further reduced if total general fund revenue meets specific targets. North Carolina also has a 2.5 percent corporate income tax rate, the lowest in the nation.

The ten best states in this year’s ranking are: 1) Wyoming 2) South Dakota 3) Alaska 4) Florida 5) Montana 6) New Hampshire 7) Nevada 8) Utah 9) North Carolina and 10) Indiana.

The ten lowest-ranked states in this year’s Index are: 41) Rhode Island 42) Hawaii 43) Vermont 44) Minnesota 45) Maryland 46) Massachusetts 47) Connecticut 48) California 49) New York and 50) New Jersey.

This latest accolade comes less than four months after North Carolina declared America’s Top State for Business by CNBC for the last two years in a row.

Clearly, the pro-growth policies pursued by the conservative reform majority are working. Let’s keep it up!