If you sell online into Louisiana from another state, Louisiana online sales tax applies to you once your sales into the state cross either $100,000 in gross revenue or 200 separate transactions in the current or previous calendar year. From that point on, every taxable order shipped to a Louisiana address has to include state and local sales tax, calculated at the rate for the delivery address and remitted through the Louisiana Sales and Use Tax Commission for Remote Sellers.
When You Have to Start Collecting
Two thresholds, measured on sales delivered into Louisiana during the current or previous calendar year: more than $100,000 in gross revenue, or 200 or more separate transactions. Either one triggers the obligation. Both counts include tangible goods, digital products, and taxable services, and they add up across every channel you sell through: your own website, third-party platforms, phone orders, catalog orders.
Timing matters. The obligation begins when you cross the threshold, not at the start of the next year. A seller who tips over in October has to apply to the Louisiana Sales and Use Tax Commission for Remote Sellers within 30 days and start collecting once the commission approves the application. Waiting for January doesn’t reset anything.
If You Sell Through Amazon, Etsy, or Walmart
Platforms that both list your product and process the buyer’s payment are treated as marketplace facilitators under Louisiana law, and the platform itself is the dealer for tax purposes. Amazon, Etsy, and Walmart Marketplace handle calculation, collection, and remittance on the sales they process for you. The same $100,000 or 200-transaction thresholds apply to the facilitator, counting both its own sales and sales it processes for third parties.
If a facilitator is already collecting on your sales there, you do not collect again on those same transactions. Doing so would double-tax the buyer. But sales you make outside that platform, through your own website or any other non-facilitator channel, still count toward your personal nexus thresholds and still need to be handled by you. The facilitator carries the audit risk for the transactions it processes, with one exception: if you gave the platform incorrect information about whether a product is taxable, liability can shift back to you.
How to Register
Registration is free and runs through the commission’s portal at remotesellers.louisiana.gov. You will need your legal business name, Federal Employer Identification Number, mailing address, the date you first met either threshold, an estimate of your monthly Louisiana sales, and a general description of what you sell.
Once the commission approves the application, it issues an account number. You must begin collecting no later than 60 days after approval. Because the application itself is due within 30 days of crossing the threshold, the practical window from “I owe this” to “I’m collecting” is tight. Start early.
What Rate to Charge
This is where older guidance misleads sellers. Remote sellers no longer collect a flat 8.45% combined rate. That was the pre-July 1, 2020 “Direct Marketer” rate. Since then, you charge the actual combined state and local rate for the delivery address of each order. The commission publishes jurisdictional codes that give you the exact rate for any Louisiana location, so you do not have to read parish ordinances yourself.
The state portion is 5%. Local parish rates vary and can push some combined rates above 11%. State and local tax both get reported and paid to the commission in a single return. You do not file separately with individual parishes.
Filing Returns and Paying
Returns go through RemoteSellersFiling.la.gov, which is a different system from the LATAX portal that in-state dealers use. You report sales by delivery jurisdiction and the portal applies the correct rate. Returns are due on or before the 20th of the month after the reporting period.
The portal accepts electronic payments including ACH debit. After you submit, it generates a confirmation receipt. Save those receipts. They are your proof of timely filing if anything is questioned later.
What a Late Return Costs
The penalty starts at 5% of the unpaid tax and adds another 5% for every 30 days the return stays delinquent, up to 25%. Interest accrues on top of that at a rate pegged to three percentage points above the judicial interest rate, capped at 1.25% per month.
Penalties apply to both late filing and late payment separately. If you file on time but don’t pay, or pay but don’t file the return, you still owe the penalty. Five months of ignoring the problem gets you to the full 25% ceiling plus accumulated interest on everything owed.
Exemptions and Resale Certificates
Online orders get the same exemptions as in-store purchases. Prescription drugs are generally exempt statewide. Digital products used exclusively for commercial purposes in producing goods or services that are themselves subject to sales tax are exempt, as are digital products used by FDIC-insured financial institutions for processing transactions and by licensed healthcare facilities for storing medical information or treating patients.
If a Louisiana buyer is purchasing for resale, they can give you a Louisiana Resale Certificate to exempt the sale. The certificate requires the buyer’s remote seller account number, legal name, physical address, and NAICS code. Completed certificates are submitted to the commission by email. If the buyer ends up using the goods instead of reselling them, the tax liability shifts to the buyer, and signing a resale certificate without intent to resell carries separate penalties.
If You Should Have Been Collecting but Weren’t
The Louisiana Department of Revenue runs a Voluntary Disclosure Agreement program for sellers who crossed the nexus threshold in past years and never registered. If you come forward before the state contacts you, the look-back is limited to the current calendar year plus the three preceding years, and delinquent penalties are waived once you pay the tax and interest for that period.
To qualify, you must not already be registered for the tax in question, and the department must not have already reached out about the liability. Applications can be made anonymously using Form R-60010, and you stay anonymous until both sides sign the agreement. Compared with the alternative, which is a full audit covering every year you had nexus plus penalties, this is worth a serious look if you have been selling into Louisiana unregistered.
One hard exception: if you actually collected sales tax from Louisiana customers and kept it instead of remitting it, the look-back extends to cover every period where that happened. Penalty waivers in those cases are handled case by case, and the state is far less forgiving.
Records You Need to Keep
Louisiana requires dealers, including remote sellers, to keep complete records of property sold, distributed, or delivered into the state, together with invoices and anything else needed to verify compliance. The statutory minimum is at least three years from the date the tax was due under general prescription rules, with that period extending if no return was filed or if an audit or dispute is open. The Department of Revenue’s own retention guidance points to a seven-year period, which is the safer benchmark in practice.
Keep sales reports broken out by jurisdiction, exemption and resale certificates from buyers, confirmation receipts from the filing portal, and any correspondence with the commission. If an audit opens and you cannot produce the documentation, you lose the ability to dispute whatever number the auditor arrives at.
If You Open a Warehouse or Hire in Louisiana
The remote seller framework stops applying once you establish a physical presence in the state. Opening a warehouse, hiring local employees, or storing inventory in Louisiana turns you into a “dealer” under state law. Dealers register with the Louisiana Department of Revenue instead of the commission, collect at the specific rates for each parish they operate in, and file directly with local tax collectors rather than through the remote seller portal. There is no minimum level of physical presence that avoids this; any amount triggers the switch.