Another new national business tax survey has been released and it's another awful showing for the Garden State.

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The Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council (SBE Council) has published the Business Tax Index 2012: Best and Worst State Tax Systems for Entrepreneurship and Small Business. The index ranks the 50 states and District of Columbia according to the costs of their tax systems.

The study 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. Among the taxes included are income, capital gains, property, death/inheritance, unemployment, and various consumption-based taxes, including state gas and diesel levies.

While New Jersey's gas tax is the third lowest, SBE Council chief economist and the study's author Ray Keating says, "In terms of the personal income tax, New Jersey's rate is very high and so is the capital gains tax. Both of those are amongst the highest in the country. The corporate tax rates are very high. Of course, property taxes which effect both individuals and businesses are also among the highest in the country in New Jersey.

The bottom line for New Jersey in this year's survey says Keating is, "New Jersey ranks unfortunately very poorly. Once again they rank 49th."

The 15 worst state tax systems are: 37) Nebraska, 38) North Carolina, 39) Illinois, 40) Oregon, 41) Rhode Island, 42) Connecticut, 43) Hawaii, 44) Vermont, 45) California, 46) Maine, 47) Iowa, 48) New York, 49) New Jersey, 50) Minnesota and 51) District of Columbia.

Keating explains, "We keep the District of Columbia in there just to keep at least a couple of states happy."

According to the "Business Tax Index 2012," the 15 best tax systems are: 1) South Dakota, 2) Texas, 3) Nevada, 4) Wyoming, 5) Washington, 6) Florida, 7) Alaska, 8)Alabama, 9) Ohio, 10) Colorado, 11) Mississippi, 12) Michigan, 13) South Carolina, 14) Tennessee, and 15) Missouri.

"All taxes matter, whether imposed at the federal, state or local level of government," says Keating. "They matter to consumers, entrepreneurs, investors and businesses. State and local levies matter in terms of a state's competitiveness and they matter when it comes to economic growth and job creation."

Governor Chris Christie touts his business-friendly initiatives and the business community likes what Christie is doing, but clearly change is slow to come because New Jersey ranked 49th in last year's survey too.

Keating explains, "The Governor has done some positive things, but you have to realize you've got such a deep hole to climb out of."

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