The DMV operates as one referral market, but Virginia, Washington DC, and Maryland tax practice owners differently enough that where you earn, and where a sale lands, changes what you keep.
Maryland moved most aggressively for high earners in 2025: new top brackets of 6.25 and 6.5 percent and a 2 percent surtax on capital gains above a federal AGI of $350,000. That surtax is especially painful in a sale year, when a large gain lands at once.
Virginia's top rate is a flatter 5.75 percent that reaches fairly modest income, so high earners feel less of a marginal step-up than in Maryland, and there is no separate capital gains surtax.
DC has its own graduated brackets that climb for high earners, plus rules for how business income is taxed at the entity level that matter for how you structure the practice.
The practical point is not that one is always best. It is that entity structure, where you take income, and the timing of a sale should be planned with the specific state in mind, particularly if you practice near a border or are weighing a second location.
For an owner planning an exit, the state the gain is taxed in can swing the after-tax result by six figures. That is worth modeling before, not after, the deal.