Louisiana sales tax on invoices (2026 guide)

Louisiana's state sales tax rate is 5%. It went up from 4.45% on January 1, 2025, as part of the sales tax reform passed by the Legislature in its 2024 special session (Act 11). The Department of Revenue says the 5% rate runs through 2029 and is scheduled to fall to 4.75% on January 1, 2030.

Louisiana is unusual in two ways. First, local sales taxes are run locally: parishes, cities, school boards and districts levy their own taxes, and you pay them to a local collector, not to the state. Second, the same reform expanded sales tax to digital products and some software and information services from 2025. If you sell software, subscriptions or data to Louisiana customers, this guide is for you.

Louisiana sales tax rates

Your invoice rate is the state 5% plus every local tax that applies where the sale takes place. Local rates differ from parish to parish and sometimes within a parish, so look up the exact rate for the address before you invoice. Our sales tax calculator can do the arithmetic once you know the combined rate.

How local tax is administered

Louisiana doesn't have one statewide collector for local tax. If you have a location in Louisiana, you apply for a local account with the collector in each parish where you make taxable sales. The Department of Revenue's free Parish E-File service lets you file state and parish returns from one place, and the money goes directly to each local collector.

Out-of-state sellers work differently: they register with the Louisiana Sales and Use Tax Commission for Remote Sellers, which collects both state and local tax at the actual rate for the delivery address.

Which services are taxable in Louisiana?

Louisiana taxes sales of goods and a list of services. Services that aren't on the list aren't taxed. The Department of Revenue's list includes:

• Repairs and maintenance of tangible personal property (and, since 2025, of digital products), such as fixing appliances, furniture or equipment. Labor to fabricate, repair or maintain movable property is generally taxable.
• Laundry, cleaning, pressing, alteration and dyeing services.
• Printing and copying services.
• Furnishing of sleeping rooms (hotels and similar lodging).

Repairs and maintenance to immovable property — your customer's house or building — are not taxable. Labor to build, install, remodel or repair real property is generally not subject to Louisiana sales tax either.

New since January 1, 2025: digital products and software

State and local sales tax now applies to:

• Digital products — digital audio and audiovisual works, digital books, digital codes, digital applications and games, and digital periodicals and discussion forums.
• Prewritten computer software access services — what most people call software as a service (SaaS).
• Information services — electronic data retrieval or research, and collecting, compiling, analyzing or furnishing information such as news or financial information.

The Department lists exclusions from "information services," including proprietary information compiled for a client's exclusive use and data processing, including payment processing. There are also exemptions for some business uses, such as products used in production, by FDIC-insured financial institutions and by health care facilities. If you run a software or data business, read the Department's digital products FAQs before you set up your invoices.

Registering to collect Louisiana sales tax

If you make taxable sales in Louisiana, register with the Louisiana Department of Revenue for the state tax (online through LaTAP) and with the local collector in each parish where you make sales.

Remote sellers. An out-of-state business must register with the Remote Sellers Commission once its gross revenue from sales delivered into Louisiana is more than $100,000 in the previous or current calendar year. Louisiana used to have a 200-transaction test as well; the Legislature removed it in 2023, so only the dollar test applies now. Sales made through a marketplace that collects the tax for you don't count toward your own threshold.

What a Louisiana sales tax invoice should show

• your business name and address,
• the customer's name and address,
• a unique invoice number and the invoice date,
• a description and price for each item or service,
• sales tax as a separate line, with the combined rate you applied (state plus local), and
• the total due.

Keep taxable and non-taxable work on separate lines. In Invoice Native, tick Tax only on the taxable lines and enter your combined rate.

Resale and exemption certificates

A business that buys goods (or certain taxable services) to resell gives you a Louisiana Resale Certificate. The Department issues these to dealers registered with it who buy for resale in the normal course of business; dealers request and renew them through LaTAP, and certificates have to be renewed to stay valid. Keep a copy with your records for every tax-free sale.

A resale certificate only covers items the buyer will resell — not things the business uses itself. Exempt organizations need their own exemption documentation. See how to invoice a tax-exempt customer.

A worked example

Say you run a small software company and invoice a Louisiana client for:

• $1,500 for a custom analysis of the client's own sales data, prepared for that client only, and
• $200 for a monthly subscription to your hosted scheduling software.

The subscription is a prewritten computer software access service, so it's taxable. The custom analysis is proprietary information compiled for the client's exclusive use, which the Department excludes from information services.

If the client's address has a 4.5% local rate (a hypothetical rate for this example), the combined rate is 5% + 4.5% = 9.5%. The tax is $200 × 9.5% = $19.00, and the invoice total is $1,500 + $200 + $19 = $1,719.00.

Selling to customers in other states

If you ship goods or deliver taxable services to customers in another state, that state's rules may apply instead of Louisiana's. Since the Supreme Court's 2018 decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair, states can require out-of-state sellers to register and collect their sales tax once sales into the state pass a threshold the state sets. If you sell across state lines regularly, check the thresholds and registration rules of each state you sell into — and use that state's rate on those invoices.

Common mistakes on Louisiana invoices

• Using last year's rate. The state rate has been 5%, not 4.45%, since January 1, 2025.
• Forgetting local tax, or using your own parish's rate when the sale takes place somewhere else.
• Not taxing SaaS or digital products sold to Louisiana customers after 2024.
• Taxing home repairs. Repairs to immovable property aren't taxable; repairs to movable items are.
• Accepting an expired resale certificate. Certificates must be renewed.

Quick checklist for Louisiana invoices

• ✅ Registered with the Department of Revenue and each parish where you sell
• ✅ 5% state rate plus the correct local rate for the address
• ✅ Checked whether your software, data or digital sales became taxable in 2025
• ✅ Taxable and non-taxable lines separated, tax on its own line
• ✅ Current Louisiana Resale Certificates on file for resale customers