You wouldn’t know it from the headlines, but Connecticut has the lowest business taxes in America. According to the Council on State Taxation (COST), a trade association of large corporations, Connecticut has the Nation’s lowest effective state and local business tax rate.

COST found that taxes on business in 2010 comprised only 3.3% of private sector economic activity, compared to the national average of 5.0%. This finding has been consistent: COST has placed Connecticut at or near the bottom for the last seven years.

And COST knows its stuff. Founded by state chambers of commerce, COST has about 600 multistate corporations as members, including Aetna, CIGNA, General Electric, Pitney Bowes, and UTC. To carry out its tax calculations, COST engages Ernst & Young, one of the Big Four international accounting firms.

2010 State and Local Business Taxes as Share of Private Sector Economic Activity

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