How Louisiana’s Tax Rates Affect the Average Resident’s Wallet

Tax season is no different in Louisiana than any other state in the Union, at least when it comes to the obligation to file taxes. What someone pays into the tax system changes quite a bit depending on what state you live in, and new data helps show just how much the average Louisiana resident is paying in taxes.

Low Property Tax With An Extra Order of Sales Tax

The Pelican State is known for having a low property tax rate, unlike most states which rely on the tax for much of the state's tax revenue. Louisiana residents only pay a 0.55% property tax, among the lowest in the country.

Since the government of Louisiana still requires funding to operate, the tax revenue for the state is made up of the state's high sales tax rate. As of January 2025, the state sales tax in Louisiana is 5.0%, up from the 4.45% rate previously which might not seem that high of a tax rate compared to states like California where the state sales tax is 7.25%.

The difference for Louisiana is the local sales tax that gets added to the state sales tax. La Salle Parish has the highest total sales tax rate at 12.95% as of 2020, while most other parishes hovered around the 9.45%-9.95% mark.

How Much Altogether

The effective annual cost of state and local taxes in a single year for the average Louisiana household is $7,401. This includes the tax burdens for real-estate, vehicle property, income, sales, and excise taxes of the state.

Louisiana is among the cheaper half of all 50 states when it comes to the tax burden of the average household, being just one of 26 states where the taxes cost the average household less than $8,000 a year.