Ask HN: Best USA state to be self-employed in?

Many business incorporate in Delaware since they have very friendly business taxes. If i remember right, they also have no personal income tax, like Texas and Tennessee.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=best+states+to+be+self+employed&t=...

Is 'financial' 'best' in the answer you're looking for? Or more broader aspects?

I was self-employed in Austin, TX for a long time. Had only a few clients at a time, didn't have to work that many hours, and was even able to rent a small office at 501 Studios on E. 6th St. Rent was cheap, no state income tax, lots of cool hangouts. I don't live there anymore and prices have went up since then, but still a relative bargain compared to many other states.

If you're mostly working online and able to pull in some work from that, you could get an apartment from $600 - $800 in Albuquerque, New Mexico area. Or if you prefer to buy a house, you could get something for under $150k if you're only looking for 1-2 bedrooms, kitchen, and bath.

The further away from Santa Fe you get, and even Albuquerque itself, the cheaper everything is going to be. I love the hiking, the Sandia Mountains, and access to 25 (north and south) and 40 (east and west) can take you all the way up to Canada and down to Mexico or to California all the way east across the country to Virginia.

Weather is relatively stable, though windy at times, however it is beautiful during the day. Desert can get cold af to the point of hurt at night. Women are nice and friendly, but the state itself is seemingly isolationist: everyone tends to keep to themselves.

While I'm not self-employed, I work 2-3 jobs from home which affords me more of my paycheck. I am originally from New Jersey, where if you made 2 paychecks a month, 1 paycheck usually went to rent while the other paycheck went towards food and going out. Instead, about 1/4 of one paycheck goes towards my rent, while the rest is for other things and has afforded me the ability to do quite a bit.

My only issue that I find myself having to do is correct my W-4 with the state to offset taxes, as the state itself tends to have a higher employment tax rate which can add up, but offsetting it by $10 or $20 usually keeps everything under control. I'm sure self-employment taxes are a bit higher as well. However, you can definitely get a nice luxury apartment or house and likely afford it on a single income.

Assuming you're not working a multi national corp that has branches in the US (and therefore reports to the irs), I can't imagine hiding income abroad is all that difficult with a few shell LLC's and trusts.