Louisiana sales tax changes that took effect January 1, 2025 raised the state rate to 5%, pulled digital products and a defined list of services into the tax base, and forced local parishes to follow the same taxability rules as the state. A combined state-and-local return followed in January 2026, letting businesses file one return per location instead of juggling separate parish filings. The reforms came out of the 2024 Third Extraordinary Session and were signed by the governor on December 4, 2024.1Louisiana Sales and Use Tax Commission. Announcements
The State Rate Is Now 5% Through 2029
The state sales tax rate moved from 4.45% to 5% on January 1, 2025.2Louisiana Department of Revenue. What Is the State Sales Tax Rate? The 5% figure is temporary. It holds through December 31, 2029, and then drops to 4.75% unless the legislature extends it. Business utilities carry a lower state rate of 2%.
What a customer actually pays is higher, because parish and municipal taxes stack on top. The combined state-and-local average now sits near 10%, so the location of the sale matters as much as the state rate itself. A sale in New Orleans and a sale in Shreveport carry the same 5% state portion but different totals.
Telecommunications, cable television, satellite TV, video programming, and satellite digital audio radio services carry an additional 5% state tax on top of the base rate, which can push the state-level tax on those services to 10% before any local tax applies.2Louisiana Department of Revenue. What Is the State Sales Tax Rate?
Digital Products and a Defined List of Services Are Now Taxable
Act 10 brought digital products into the sales tax base at both the state and local level.1Louisiana Sales and Use Tax Commission. Announcements Streaming video subscriptions, music downloads, e-books, and electronically delivered software are taxed the same way a physical copy would be. The amended definitions in R.S. 47:301 treat anyone who manufactures, imports, or sells digital products at retail as a dealer.3Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Code RS 47:301 – Definitions
Services remain taxed by category, not across the board. The statutory list covers lodging, admissions to entertainment and amusement venues, motor vehicle parking and storage, printing and copying, laundry and dry cleaning, clothing alterations and repairs, cold storage, repairs and maintenance of tangible personal property, telecommunications, prewritten computer software access services, and information services.4Louisiana Department of Revenue. General Sales and Use Tax Consulting, legal work, and accounting are not on the list and remain untaxed. If you sell services, the question is whether each specific offering appears in the statute, not whether services in general are now taxable.
What Stayed Exempt
Groceries intended for home preparation and consumption are still exempt from state sales tax under R.S. 47:305(D). Fresh produce, dairy, bakery items, and packaged foods that require cooking fall inside that exemption. Prepared meals from restaurants and food trucks are taxable, as are candy and soft drinks. The constitutional amendment tied to the reform preserved state-level exclusions for food for home consumption, residential utilities, and prescription drugs.5Louisiana Department of Revenue. 2024 Third Extraordinary Session Legislative Summaries
Groceries get complicated at the local level. The state exemption does not automatically extend to parish and municipal sales taxes, and proposed legislation to make the exemption mandatory for local taxes, including House Bill 229, had not been enacted as of early 2026. Expect to still see local tax on groceries in some jurisdictions.
A few exemptions got broader. Feminine hygiene products and diapers moved from an optional local exemption to a full exemption at all levels.1Louisiana Sales and Use Tax Commission. Announcements The manufacturing machinery and equipment exemption was expanded to include computers and software that control or communicate with systems managing heating or cooling for manufacturing equipment.6Louisiana Department of Revenue. Are There Changes to the Manufacturing, Machinery and Equipment Exemptions?
One Combined Return for State and Local Sales Tax
For years, Louisiana businesses filed state sales tax with the Department of Revenue and then filed separate returns with each parish collector. The Louisiana Constitution had long required a single collector per parish, but the state and local returns stayed disconnected.7Justia. Louisiana Constitution Article VII – Revenue and Finance A new Combined State and Local Sales Tax Return went live in January 2026, letting a business report state and local activity for each physical location on one uniform return. The system routes the appropriate portions to each taxing authority.8Louisiana Department of Revenue. Parish E-File
Using the combined return requires matching filing frequencies for the state account and every local authority account tied to a location. A business that chooses to submit its state portion separately (for example, as a consolidated state return) still has to enter state-level sales data to complete the combined return.8Louisiana Department of Revenue. Parish E-File The combined return replaces the former single-jurisdiction and multi-jurisdiction returns. Hotel and motel returns stay on their own track.
State and Local Rules Now Match
Act 11 requires every local taxing authority to follow the regulations the Department of Revenue had in effect as of January 1, 2025. When the state amends those regulations later, the updated rules automatically apply at the local level too.9Louisiana State Legislature. Act No. 11 – 2024 Third Extraordinary Session The constitutional amendment goes further: any new sales tax exclusion or exemption enacted by the legislature must apply to both state and local taxes.5Louisiana Department of Revenue. 2024 Third Extraordinary Session Legislative Summaries Local ordinances must contain the optional exclusions and exemptions allowed by state law, separated from any exemptions adopted under Article VI, Section 29(D)(1) of the Louisiana Constitution.
The practical result is a single taxability standard statewide. The rate still varies by parish, but whether an item is taxable or exempt no longer depends on where the store sits. For retailers programming point-of-sale systems, that is the first real simplification in decades.
Remote Sellers and Marketplace Platforms
Out-of-state sellers hit Louisiana’s economic nexus once they cross either threshold in the current or previous calendar year: $100,000 in gross revenue from Louisiana sales, or 200 or more separate transactions delivered into the state. Registration with the Louisiana Sales and Use Tax Commission for Remote Sellers is due within 30 days of crossing a threshold, and collection must begin within 60 days of reaching it, using the actual state and local rates at each delivery address.1Louisiana Sales and Use Tax Commission. Announcements
Marketplace facilitators, meaning platforms that list third-party sellers’ products, process payments, or help ship goods, carry a separate obligation. Under R.S. 47:340.1(B), the facilitator is the dealer responsible for collecting and remitting sales tax on all remote sales made through the platform, including sales by Louisiana-based sellers. The facilitator also has to keep exemption certificates and gather enough information from each seller to determine taxability.10Louisiana Sales and Use Tax Commission. RSIB 23-001 Marketplace Facilitators and Louisiana Merchants If you sell through Amazon or Etsy, the platform handles Louisiana sales tax on those sales. Sales you make directly through your own website are your responsibility once you meet the nexus thresholds.
What Businesses Need to Do
Louisiana is a destination-based state. The rate on a transaction is set by the shipping address, not the seller’s address. A business in Baton Rouge shipping to Lafayette charges the Lafayette rate. This trips up businesses that recently started selling across parish lines or online, and the combined return makes those miscalculations easier for the state to detect.
Returns are due by the 20th of the month following the reporting period, with weekend and holiday deadlines moving to the next business day. Businesses that owe more than $5,000 in taxes generally have to file electronically. Zero sales in a period still requires a return; silence counts as a filing violation.
Registration runs through Louisiana’s GeauxBiz portal, which collects the federal EIN, projected sales, and the products or services the business plans to sell. Acquiring an existing Louisiana business triggers a separate registration. Sellers also have to collect valid exemption or resale certificates for every exempt transaction and keep them on file. Without a current, complete certificate, the seller is liable for the tax even if the buyer legitimately qualified.
Where Audit Risk Is Highest Right Now
A major tax overhaul is when audit risk climbs, because taxing authorities know businesses miscategorize items when new categories become taxable. The patterns most likely to draw a letter during the 2026 transition:
- Reported sales that don’t match data the state receives from payment processors or marketplace facilitators.
- Taxability mistakes on digital products and the listed services, in both directions: charging tax on exempt items or missing it on newly taxable ones.
- Missing, expired, or incomplete exemption certificates on file for exempt sales.
- Out-of-state sellers who crossed the $100,000 or 200-transaction threshold and never registered within 30 days.
- Mergers, acquisitions, and restructurings, which produce reporting gaps that auditors specifically target.
Prior audit history also feeds future selection, especially where an earlier audit found systematic problems rather than isolated errors. Reconciling sales figures to filed returns each period, keeping exemption certificates current, and double-checking taxability on digital products and listed services are the practical defenses while the new system settles in.