Nevada does not impose a corporate income tax

# Summary

Nevada does not impose a corporate income tax. There is no Nevada corporate income or franchise tax measured by net income, and no corporate income tax return.

This does not mean Nevada corporations are untaxed at entity level. Nevada's principal entity-level taxes are the Commerce Tax, imposed on Nevada gross revenue above $4,000,000, and the Modified Business Tax, imposed on wages. Both are described below. A corporation with no Nevada net income can owe both.

# Nevada Department of Taxation statement

The Department's official newsletter, Nevada Tax Notes, Issue No. 194 (January 2023), states:

"The State of Nevada does not impose an individual or business income tax."

The Department's "Income Tax in Nevada" page describes Nevada's business taxation in the same terms, noting that "Nevada does have a Commerce Tax for businesses whose gross revenue exceeds $4 million in a fiscal year" and that "smaller businesses below this threshold are not subject to this tax." The business tax Nevada levies is a gross revenue tax, not an income tax.

# This is a legislative choice, not a constitutional bar

Nevada's constitution prohibits taxing the personal income of natural persons. It does not protect businesses. Nev. Const. art. 10, § 1(9) provides:

"No income tax shall be levied upon the wages or personal income of natural persons. Notwithstanding the foregoing provision, and except as otherwise provided in subsection 1 of this Section, taxes may be levied upon the income or revenue of any business in whatever form it may be conducted for profit in the State."

The second sentence is an express authorization. Nevada may tax the income or revenue of a business "in whatever form it may be conducted for profit," subject to the uniform-and-equal-rate requirement of subsection 1 of the same section.

So the absence of a Nevada corporate income tax rests on the legislature not having enacted one, not on a constitutional prohibition. That has a practical consequence worth stating: a corporate income tax could be introduced by ordinary legislation, without the constitutional amendment that reintroducing an individual income tax would require. This is a weaker form of "no tax" than the individual determination on the companion page, and weaker than Texas, where an individual income tax is constitutionally forbidden.

It is also the authority the Commerce Tax stands on — a tax measured by business gross revenue, levied under exactly this permission.

# What replaces it — the Commerce Tax

NRS 363C.200(1): "For the privilege of engaging in a business in this State, a commerce tax is hereby imposed upon each business entity whose Nevada gross revenue in a taxable year exceeds $4,000,000 in an amount determined pursuant to NRS 363C.300 to 363C.560, inclusive."

Four features matter when comparing this to a corporate income tax:

• Base. It is measured by Nevada GROSS REVENUE, not net income. A corporation operating at a loss can owe commerce tax.
• Threshold. Only entities with Nevada gross revenue above $4,000,000 in the taxable year are liable. NRS 363C.200(2) provides that the Department "shall not require a business entity whose Nevada gross revenue for a taxable year is $4,000,000 or less to file a return for that taxable year."
• Rate. The rate varies by the business category in which the entity is primarily engaged (NRS 363C.300), so there is no single headline rate. The Department notes rates differ across sectors such as retail, manufacturing, and services.
• Year and due date. The taxable year ends June 30, and the return is due 45 days after that date.

A credit against the Modified Business Tax is available to businesses that meet the Department's criteria.

# Modified Business Tax (payroll)

Nevada also imposes an excise tax on employers, measured by wages rather than income.

General businesses — NRS 363B.110(1) imposes "an excise tax on each employer at the rate of 1.475 percent of the amount by which the sum of all the wages ... paid by the employer during a calendar quarter with respect to employment in connection with the business activities of the employer exceeds $50,000."

Financial institutions and mining — NRS 363A.130(1) imposes "an excise tax on each employer at the rate of 2 percent of the wages ... paid by the employer during a calendar quarter." NRS 363A.120 separately imposes an excise tax on each bank "at the rate of $1,750 for each branch office maintained by the bank in this State in excess of one branch office maintained by the bank in each county."

Like the Commerce Tax, these are not income taxes. A corporation with no net income still owes them if it pays wages above the applicable threshold.

# Filing consequences

There is no Nevada corporate income tax return to file, and no Nevada apportionment, combined reporting, or net operating loss regime for income tax purposes, because there is no income tax to apportion.

A Nevada corporation may still have Department obligations: a commerce tax return if its Nevada gross revenue exceeds $4,000,000 for the taxable year, and Modified Business Tax returns if it pays wages. Registration and sales and use tax duties may also apply.

Entity formation questions are handled by the Nevada Secretary of State, not the Department of Taxation.

# Coverage and verification

Tax years covered: 2025.

Verified on 2026-08-13 against Nevada Tax Notes Issue No. 194, the Department's "Commerce Tax" and "Income Tax in Nevada" pages as then published, the Nevada Constitution as published by the Nevada Legislature, and NRS chapters 363A, 363B and 363C as published in this library.

Issue No. 194 (January 2023) is the most recent edition of Nevada Tax Notes carrying the affirmative statement; the December 2025 and June 2026 editions were checked and do not repeat it. The Department's current web pages were used for the Commerce Tax figures.

Sourcing note: the Nevada Legislature's website blocks automated retrieval, so the constitutional text was obtained from that site by the maintainer rather than fetched, and quoted here as supplied.

Because this determination rests on legislative inaction rather than a constitutional prohibition, it is more susceptible to change than the individual determination and should be re-verified each session year.

# Sources

Nev. Const. art. 10, § 1(9) — https://www.leg.state.nv.us/const/nvconst.html

Nevada Department of Taxation, Nevada Tax Notes, Issue No. 194 (January 2023) — https://tax.nv.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/01-2023-Tax-Notes-Issue-194-compressed.pdf

Nevada Department of Taxation, Commerce Tax — https://tax.nv.gov/commerce-tax/

Nevada Department of Taxation, Income Tax in Nevada — https://tax.nv.gov/about-nevada-department-of-taxation/income-tax-in-nevada/

Nev. Rev. Stat. §§ 363C.200, 363C.300, 363B.110, 363A.120, 363A.130, as published in this library.