Louisiana Industrial Tax Exemption Program (ITEP) Requirements

To qualify for the Louisiana Industrial Tax Exemption Program, you must be a manufacturer making a new capital investment in eligible buildings and equipment, file a Project Application through Louisiana Economic Development’s FastLane NextGen portal before construction begins, clear review by a Local ITEP Committee and the Board of Commerce and Industry, obtain the governor’s signature, and then file annual reports to keep the exemption alive. Meeting those Louisiana Industrial Tax Exemption Program requirements can take up to 80% of local property taxes off qualifying assets for as long as ten years.¹

Who Counts as a Manufacturer

Eligibility turns on the constitutional definition of a “manufacturing establishment” in Louisiana Constitution Article VII, Section 21(F). Your operation has to take raw materials and transform them into a different product, or give “new shapes, qualities or combinations” to materials that have already gone through some industrial process.² Petrochemical refining, food processing, and lumber milling all fit; storage, sales, and distribution do not.

Eligible property is limited to machinery, equipment, and buildings tied directly to the manufacturing process. Land stays on the tax rolls at full value and is never exempt under ITEP.¹ The project must be a genuinely new investment or a meaningful expansion. Routine maintenance, environmental compliance upgrades, and replacement parts generally don’t qualify unless they’re part of a broader rehabilitation or restoration of the facility.³

What the Exemption Actually Covers

A standard contract exempts 80% of local ad valorem taxes on qualifying assets. You still pay the remaining 20% every year the contract is in force.³ The exempted property still appears on the assessment rolls and is reported to the Louisiana Tax Commission; the assessor simply doesn’t collect on the exempted portion.²

The initial contract runs up to five calendar years. A renewal of up to five more years is available, bringing the maximum exemption period to ten years, with the renewal also capped at 80%.⁴

Projects with at least $500 million in capital expenditures can be classified as “Mega Projects” and considered for an enhanced rate between 93% and 100%, at the governor’s discretion.³ The Local ITEP Committee reviews the project and recommends; the Board of Commerce and Industry and the governor decide.

How to Apply

All ITEP applications are filed online through LED’s FastLane NextGen (FLNG) portal. The initial filing, called a Project Application, must be submitted before construction begins. Filing after you’ve broken ground or purchased equipment can disqualify the project entirely, so the pre-construction timing is non-negotiable.¹

The application has to describe the project scope, the equipment and structures involved, and the estimated capital investment. You also need to identify every local taxing authority affected by the exemption. That typically means the parish council or police jury, the school board, the sheriff’s office, and the mayor’s office if the project sits within a municipality. These are the entities that form the Local ITEP Committee.

Under the 2025 rules, there are no minimum job creation or payroll thresholds to participate.¹ That is a change from earlier versions of the program that tied exemptions to specific employment commitments.

Local ITEP Committee Review

After LED completes its review, the Project Application goes to the Local ITEP Committee, which has 45 calendar days to consider it.³ A committee that wants to hold a public meeting has to post notice within the first 15 days. Voting members include one representative each from the parish government, the school board, the sheriff’s office, and the mayor (if applicable).⁵

The committee’s recommendation is advisory. Its resolution gets attached to the ITEP contract as Exhibit A, but it does not bind the governor or the Board of Commerce and Industry, and a contract can still be approved over local objections.⁶ If the committee takes no action within 45 days, the application is deemed accepted and moves on.

Board Approval and the Governor’s Signature

Once the local review period closes, the application goes to the Board of Commerce and Industry, which meets every other month, six times a year.¹ The Louisiana Department of Revenue and the Louisiana Workforce Commission also review the application. An unresolved objection from either agency keeps the application off the board’s agenda.

After the board approves, LED prepares the contract and sends it to the governor for signature. No contract takes effect without that signature. The current framework setting the 80% base rate, the mega-project provisions, and compliance requirements for new contracts is Executive Order JML 25-033.³

Annual Reporting You Can’t Skip

Every ITEP holder must file an Annual Project Property Report (APPR) with LED by March 31 of each year after board approval, continuing until the project is completed within the contract term. The APPR has to include a project status update, a list of any new assets placed into service during the prior year that are eligible for exemption, and the exemption years for those assets.¹

Staying current matters beyond the paperwork. If your annual filings aren’t up to date when you apply for the second five-year term, the board can deny the renewal.

What a Breach Costs

If the Board of Commerce and Industry finds that a manufacturer has violated contract terms or board rules, it can recommend to the governor that the contract be terminated or suspended. Termination triggers the worst-case outcome: the manufacturer owes all taxes that would have been due if the exemption had never been granted, plus interest and penalties as provided by law.⁷ For a large facility exempt for several years, that retroactive bill can be substantial.

Executive Order JML 25-033 reinforces the point by stating that any event that changes, suspends, or breaches the contract terms “shall render the approval of the governor null and void.”³ The Department of Revenue, working with LED, is charged with implementing compliance procedures to catch issues before they rise to that level.

Renewing the Exemption

Renewal applications must be filed through FastLane NextGen no more than six months before, and no later than, the expiration of the initial five-year contract. A renewal fee is due at filing. The board evaluates the renewal using the same eligibility criteria that applied to the original contract, based on the facts and circumstances as they exist at renewal.⁴

Late filings cost real time. The renewal term is reduced by one full year for each month, or partial month, that the application is late. File two months after the deadline and only three years of the five-year renewal remain. The board can also impose additional penalties for late submissions and may send the renewal application to local entities for review using the same procedures that applied to the initial contract.⁴

1
Louisiana Economic Development. Industrial Tax Exemption Program
2
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Constitution Article VII, Section 21 – Other Property Exemptions
3
Louisiana Division of Administration. Amended and Restated Conditions for Industrial Tax Exemption Program (JML 25-033)
4
Legal Information Institute. Louisiana Administrative Code Title 13, I-529 – Renewal of Tax Exemption Contract
5
Office of the Governor, State of Louisiana. Executive Order Number JML 24-23 – Conditions for Participation in the Industrial Tax Exemption Program
6
Legal Information Institute. Louisiana Administrative Code Title 13, I-549 – Local ITEP Committee
7
Louisiana Division of Administration. Louisiana Administrative Code Title 13 – Economic Development