Louisiana’s 4% state sales tax rate is among the lowest in the nation, but with the nation’s highest average local tax rate—at slightly more than 5%—the state’s combined state and local average rate of 9.01% is the third highest in the nation. Only Arkansas, at 9.27%, and Tennessee, at 9.46%, have higher average rates, according to a new report from the Tax Foundation. Last year, Louisiana was ranked by the Tax Foundation as having the nation’s fourth-highest combined rate.
“Alabama and Louisiana both experienced slight increases in their average local sales tax rates since the beginning of the year, but Louisiana’s rate increased faster, with the state slipping past Alabama to claim the dubious title of imposing the highest average local sales tax,” reads the report, which analyzes tax rates in each state as of July 1.
Louisiana is among 38 states that allows for local sales taxes to be collected. California has the highest state sales tax in the nation, at 7.5%. Conversely, Colorado has the lowest, at 2.9%, followed by Louisiana and six other states with a 4% rate. The five states with the lowest combined average sales tax rate are Alaska (1.78%), Hawaii (4.35%), Wisconsin, Wyoming and Maine (all three at 5.43%).
In East Baton Rouge Parish, the local sales tax rate is 5% in all municipalities except Central, where it is 5.5%. That puts the combined sales tax rate here in line with the state’s 9% average. The same is true for much of Livingston and Ascension parishes; however, at retail developments such as Juban Crossing in Livingston, for which a tax increment financing deal is in place, the combined sales tax rate reaches as high as 10.5%.
