LLCs in Florida are flourishing. Small businesses in Florida make up over 99% of all businesses in the state, and there are 2.5 million of them. In 2019 alone there were half a million new businesses, showing that the rate of new businesses in Florida isn’t slowing down anytime soon.
Florida is one of the best states to form an LLC in. Based on overall rank, which considers business climate alone, Florida was ranked as the fourth best state for an LLC. Here are just a few reasons why Florida is a great state to form an LLC.
There’s no personal income tax
Florida is ranked 5th in the U.S. for having a favourable tax environment for business owners, according to the State Business Tax Climate Index. It’s one of only 7 states in the U.S. that doesn’t have personal income tax, which is very attractive for LLCs that already have pass-through taxation. So taxes are very, very small, and only for things like sales taxes for rented or purchased goods, that are at 6%. Even this is great, excluding necessities like groceries and medicine.
Robert Livingstone, founder of IdealCost.com, says that ‘Florida doesn’t have a state income tax or some of the other nuisance business taxes found in other states’. There are actually many businesses out there that are changing location to Florida solely for tax purposes – it’s a huge saving, both personally and professionally.
Low living costs
The cost of living in Florida is slightly higher than the average for U.S. states across the board. However, it does still remain more affordable than lots of other major economic hubs in the country. Florida is a great place to access capital (we’ll show this in the next reason), which means that entrepreneurs can enter into a moving business landscape at a reasonable cost. It’s cheaper than places you may have considered for living and operating a business in – like New York, Chicago, D.C., LA or San Francisco, says Zohard Pinhasi, CEO of MonsterCloud.
Florida’s laws don’t say much about overtime, severance fees and any requirements to give employees vacation benefits or sick leave. This leaves you more flexible to do what you’d like with your company and employees.
Huge amounts of access to capital
Florida is home to a considerable amount of investment capital, coming from venture capitalists and angel investors, as well as 150 banks.
Far too many people assume that to launch a successful business and get lots of investors, you need to be in a place like New York, or Silicon Valley. People don’t realise that often these places are too saturated with new entrepreneurs looking for investors and so it can be hard to kick start your business. But Florida has started to attack lots of private investment capital, and is now a hub considered to be an incubator for startups. There’s a stable business environment in Florida, and things have changed significantly since the last 5 years. And if you still feel like you won’t be able to reach out to large markets, these barriers are easily broken with technology. It’s a promising place to get lots of capital.
There’s a competitive labour market
Florida has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the U.S. – of 3.8%. This indicates its strong economic performance, but this does mean that recruiting new employees can be competitive and costly. But because competition is so high, if you have the funds to secure good employees, you will get great service from them.
There are several top universities in Florida which makes it easy for you to be able to recruit, and this can work well in your favour if they start off with you. Businesses should be prepared to compete to get the best of the best, though.
TRUiC shows one of the easiest ways to start a Florida LLC. Visit their site to learn more.
