Cook County News Herald

Cook County ranked top spot in Minnesota to own a small business



According to SmartAsset, Cook County is ranked as the top spot to own a small business in the state of Minnesota.

When compared with other counties nationally, Cook County was ranked 455th best place to operate a small business.

To determine which places are best for business owners, Smart Asset looked at three factors: The proportion of people in a county with small business income, how much business income these people reported and the amount of tax a resident must pay on their income.

Small business owners in Cook County average 32.7 percent in returns with a 12.05 percent income return. Income taxes averaged $10,011 annually for the top ten areas ranked in the state.

Cook County’s small business index was 47.39, while Roseau county (45.43), and Pope counties (44.82) were second and third.

Statewide, small business owner’s average 21.36 percent for business returns and 9.35 percent for income derived from the business.

Income tax burdens for small business owners were compared across counties by using the national median household income. The company then applied relevant deductions and exemptions before calculating federal, state and local income taxes for each location.

Steve Sabato, a manager at SmartAsset said the emergence of the COVID- 19 pandemic “has had a massive impact on small businesses in the U.S., with many temporarily closing their doors to accommodate social distancing mandates.”

A recent study by SmartAsset highlighted the places in Minnesota with the most small business owners. These rankings are based on one of the key factors in SmartAsset’s Best Places for Small Business Owners study. The analysis measured the percentage of residents in each county that depend on small business income. Cook County was one of the places where small business representation was highest.

SmartAsset is a financial technology company that offers free and personalized tools to help people make the best personal decisions around home buying or renting, retirement, taxes or more.

Once the three factors were indexed they were equally weighted to determine the best places to own and operate a small business in the U.S.

Sources for the SmartAsset study were the Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Census Bureau 2017 American Community Survey and other government sources.

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