Start a business in Nevada
A state has to fund itself somehow, and the interesting question about Nevada is not whether it has an income tax — it genuinely does not — but what it decided to charge instead. Two things. A tax on your payroll, at 1.17% of quarterly wages above $50,000, owed whether you made money or lost it. And a flat charge for existing: $200 a year for the state business licence, $150 for the annual list, $425 before your first sale. The taxable event here is employing people, not earning anything.
Nevada's reputation rests on a real fact: there is no income tax here at all, at state, city or county level. Profit passing through your LLC to you is untouched on the way, and the Commerce Tax exempts businesses below $4 million of Nevada gross revenue — so a small business genuinely owes the state nothing on what it earns.
The tax that stands in its place is the Modified Business Tax, and it is worth understanding before you hire rather than after. Under NRS 363B.110 it charges 1.17% of gross wages above $50,000 in a calendar quarter. Quarterly. On wages. Regardless of whether the business made a profit, broke even or lost money.
| Gross wages in the quarter | Above the $50,000 allowance | MBT for the quarter |
|---|---|---|
| $40,000 — two people | $0 | $0 |
| $80,000 — four people | $30,000 | $351 |
| $150,000 — eight people | $100,000 | $1,170 |
| $300,000 — a bad quarter, same staff | $250,000 | $2,925 — profit is not part of the calculation |
- Sales tax
- 6.85% state + 0% to roughly 1.53% added by county local · typically 8.375% in Clark County, which covers Las Vegas and most of the state's population
- Local income tax
- None
- State business licence
- Nevada State Business Licence — $200 a year for an LLC and every non-corporate entity type; $500 a year for a corporation
- Workers' comp from
- 1 employee
- Formation approved in
- SilverFlume files most online formations quickly, and the state business licence and initial list are bought in the same transaction.
- First 90 days, all in
- $500–$1,600 · $625 of it to the state
Official portals: SilverFlume — Nevada Business Portal · Nevada Department of Taxation · Nevada Secretary of State — State Business Licence. Figures checked September 2026; the portal always wins.
The $50,000 quarterly allowance means a genuinely small payroll pays nothing, which is why many Nevada founders never meet this tax at all — it bites at roughly three or four full-time salaries. Behind it sits the Commerce Tax and its $4 million exemption, where the measure is gross revenue rather than profit. A low-margin business reselling goods can approach $4 million of revenue while earning very little, so if your model turns over a lot to keep a little, confirm your filing position with the Department of Taxation rather than assuming the exemption follows your bank balance.
So the moment that costs you money is a hire
Which makes the hiring sequence the part to get right, and two of its triggers are unusually early.
- Workers' comp: in force before the shift starts
- Required from the first employee with no small-employer exemption for ordinary private employers, and the timing is specific — cover must exist before the employee begins work, not arranged during their first week. The Division of Industrial Relations enforces it. Sole proprietors and LLC members who take no wages can be excluded; anyone paid as an employee cannot.
- Unemployment insurance: $225 in a quarter
- Under NRS 612 you register with the Employment Security Division at DETR once you have paid $225 or more in wages for Nevada employment in any calendar quarter. That is the lowest trigger in the region and about a fortnight of casual help — assume any paid work makes you a liable employer.
- The Modified Business Tax: $50,000 in a quarter
- Roughly three or four full-time salaries, after which 1.17% applies to the excess every quarter, in good quarters and bad.
Stack those together and the honest summary of Nevada is a sorting mechanism working in the opposite direction from an income tax. It is cheapest for a profitable business with few employees and least advantageous for a thin-margin business with a large payroll — which is exactly backwards from how a state that taxes profit treats those two. Worth modelling before you commit: the runway calculator will show what a quarterly payroll tax does to a plan built on annual figures.
$350 a year, on the last day of your anniversary month
Two filings arrive together every year and are, in practice, one bill: the annual list of managers or members at $150, and the state business licence renewal at $200. Both fall due on the last day of your anniversary month under NRS 76.130, and a late renewal adds a $100 penalty.
What makes this different from an annual report elsewhere is that the state business licence is a real general licence rather than a trade licence: under NRS 76 almost every entity transacting business in Nevada needs one, whatever it does. A consultancy with no premises, no staff and no stock needs it exactly as much as a shop does.
The county licence, and the ones priced on turnover
The state licence does not cover the local one. County and city licences sit on top, and Clark County — Las Vegas and most of the state's population — has two features worth knowing before you apply rather than after.
A $45 application fee on every application
Non-refundable, charged in addition to the licence fee itself, and charged per application. If you are unsure which category you fall into, that uncertainty has a price attached — ring the county and ask before you submit rather than applying twice.
Some categories are priced on your gross revenue
A number of Clark County licence categories are “gross fee” licences, where the renewal amount is calculated from the business's gross revenue rather than being a flat charge. If your category is one of them, the licence stops being a fixed cost and becomes a small percentage of turnover — check which side of that line your trade sits on before you budget it as a flat annual figure.
And the city licenses separately again
Las Vegas, Henderson, Reno and the other incorporated cities run their own licensing. Premises inside a city means the city licence and the county position both need answering, not one or the other.
And the one place Nevada asks a service business for nothing
Sales tax is 6.85% at state level with up to about 1.53% added by county — 8.375% in Clark County — and it applies to tangible goods. Services are generally outside the base, so a pure service business often has no sales tax obligation whatsoever: nothing to register, nothing to collect, nothing to file. Where you do sell goods, the permit is $15 per business location, applied for on the Nevada Business Registration through My Nevada Tax.
That is the exact mirror image of the payroll position, and putting the two together is the clearest statement of the trade this state has made. Nevada mostly does not tax what a service business sells, and does tax the people it employs to sell it. A two-person consultancy is close to frictionless here. A fifteen-person agency has the Modified Business Tax as a line in its monthly numbers.
Formation is quick: SilverFlume files most online formations promptly, and the licence and initial list are bought in the same transaction, which is why the opening bill is one $425 rather than three separate ones. The Secretary of State's current expedited tiers could not be confirmed from a primary source at the date checked. Ninety days in, most Nevada founders are $500–$1600 down — and $425 of that went on day one, before a customer existed.
Common questions
If Nevada has no income tax, what does it tax instead?
Payroll and existence. The Modified Business Tax charges 1.17% of gross wages above $50,000 in a calendar quarter under NRS 363B.110, quarterly and regardless of profit. Every entity also pays a flat $200 state business licence each year whatever it earns, plus $150 for the annual list. The Commerce Tax exists behind both but exempts businesses under $4 million of Nevada gross revenue.
When does the Modified Business Tax start applying?
Once gross wages exceed $50,000 in a calendar quarter, which is roughly three or four full-time salaries. Below that the quarterly tax is nil. Above it the rate is 1.17% on the excess — $351 on an $80,000 quarterly payroll, $1,170 on $150,000, and $2,925 on $300,000 even in a quarter the business lost money.
Is Nevada actually cheap for my kind of business?
It depends which way round your business is. Nevada takes nothing from profit and charges on payroll and on existing, so it is cheapest for a profitable business with few employees and least advantageous for a thin-margin business with a large payroll — the opposite of how a state taxing profit would sort those two. A two-person consultancy does very well here; a fifteen-person agency carries the Modified Business Tax monthly.
How much does it cost to keep a Nevada LLC?
$350 a year — $150 for the annual list of managers or members and $200 for the state business licence — both due on the last day of your anniversary month, with a $100 penalty for a late renewal. Opening costs $425, being $75 for the articles plus those two charges in the same transaction, which comes to $1,825 across five years before any local licence.
Do I need a county licence as well as the state one?
Yes, where the county requires one. Clark County charges a $45 non-refundable application fee on every application in addition to the licence fee, and some of its categories are 'gross fee' licences whose renewal is calculated from gross revenue rather than being flat. Las Vegas, Henderson, Reno and other incorporated cities license separately again.
Does a Nevada service business need to collect sales tax?
Often not. Nevada taxes tangible goods; services are generally outside the base, so a pure service business may have no sales tax obligation at all — nothing to register, collect or file. Where you do sell goods, the permit is $15 per business location through My Nevada Tax, and the combined rate is 8.375% in Clark County.
How low is the Nevada unemployment tax threshold?
$225 of wages in a calendar quarter, under NRS 612 — the lowest in this region, and low enough that a fortnight of casual help crosses it. Register with the Employment Security Division at DETR as soon as you pay anyone. Workers' compensation is separate and must be in force before the employee starts work, not during their first week.
Nevada charges for existing. Know what that costs.
Describe your business and Velofound lays out the Nevada bill — $425 to open, $350 on your anniversary, the county licence, the quarterly payroll figure the Modified Business Tax measures — beside a website that's live and taking card payments into your own Stripe account. It doesn't file with the state and isn't an accountant. Free to start.
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