The short answer

• No income tax on you or your business. Nevada taxes gross revenue above $4 million (the Commerce Tax) and payroll (the Modified Business Tax) instead.
• Under $4 million of Nevada revenue, there is no Commerce Tax return to file.
• California doesn’t end at the state line. A business still doing business there keeps filing and paying, and income sourced there stays taxable to you.
• Bring your CPA and business attorney in before you move the entity.

01

What Nevada taxes, and what it doesn’t

Nevada’s constitution bars a tax on wages or personal income. It allows a tax on business revenue, and the state uses that power through two taxes rather than an income tax.

There is no corporate income tax either. The state doesn’t tax profit. It taxes revenue above $4 million and payroll.

02

The Commerce Tax starts above $4 million

The Commerce Tax applies to a business’s Nevada gross revenue above $4 million in a fiscal year that runs July 1 to June 30. At $4 million or less, the business doesn’t file a return at all.

• The rate depends on your industry. There are 26 categories, from 0.051% to 0.331% of revenue above $4 million. Real estate is 0.25%. Professional, scientific and technical services are 0.181%.
• The return is due August 14 for most businesses, 45 days after the fiscal year ends.
• Half of it comes back. 50% of the Commerce Tax paid can be credited against the Modified Business Tax over the next four quarters. It doesn’t carry forward beyond that.

03

The payroll tax: the Modified Business Tax

With employees in Nevada, you pay the Modified Business Tax on wages. For most businesses it is 1.17% of wages above $50,000 a quarter, after employer-paid health benefits are deducted. That rate has been in effect since July 2023.

Financial institutions and mining companies pay 1.554% on all wages, with no $50,000 exemption. Registering with Nevada’s employment department for unemployment insurance also registers the business for this tax.

04

The yearly filings

A company formed in another state registers in Nevada as a foreign entity before it starts doing business here. Your attorney can tell you whether to register the company you have or form a new Nevada entity.

05

What California keeps

Moving the business doesn’t end California’s claim on it. The FTB treats a business as doing business in California if it is organized or commercially domiciled there, makes any transaction for profit there, or its California sales, property or payroll pass a threshold that adjusts every year.

• The $800 minimum tax continues for every corporation and LLC organized, registered or doing business in California, whether or not it earns anything.
• It stops only when you close it out properly. File a final return, stop doing business in California, and file the dissolution, cancellation or surrender with the California Secretary of State within 12 months of that final return.
• California-source income stays taxable to you after you become a Nevada resident. That includes your share of partnership, S corporation and LLC income earned in California.

Moving yourself and moving your business are two separate moves. Plan both with your CPA.

06

Coming from Washington or Oregon

• Oregon taxes nonresidents on Oregon-source income. Income your business still earns there stays on an Oregon return.
• Washington has no personal income tax today, but it taxes gross receipts through the B&O tax and taxes residents’ long-term capital gains. A 9.9% tax on income over $1 million has been signed into law and is scheduled to start in 2028.

07

Do it in the right order

08

Questions buyers ask