Get your tax IDs in Louisiana

An EIN, if you need one, takes minutes online. Louisiana then adds a tax account for the taxes that actually apply, unemployment tax once you pay wages, and a new-hire report once you hire. Do not open an account just to have the number.

What’s different in Louisiana

• Income tax is flat. Individuals pay 3%⁹. C corporations pay 5.5%⁷. The old brackets are gone for periods beginning on or after January 1, 2025.
• A new business owes no corporation franchise tax. The franchise tax statute, R.S. 47:601, was repealed effective January 1, 2026⁸, so a business formed in 2026 or later has none, even though an older Department of Revenue answer still says an S corporation is not exempt from franchise tax¹¹.
• Sales tax is state plus local, unless you are a remote seller. The state piece is 5%². A business with a location does not get the remote seller’s one-return shortcut.
• Unemployment tax is the employer’s alone. It is paid by the employer, not the employee, and it is not deducted from wages¹². There is no one new-employer rate on the rate table.
• Do not register early. The department says a sales or withholding account you do not need can still create returns.

Do this

1. Get an EIN from the IRS if you need one. It is free and, if approved, issued immediately¹⁶ online. You will need it to hire, to open many bank accounts, and to file unemployment reports. A sole proprietor with no employees can often use a Social Security number for federal tax. Don’t pay a website to apply for you.
2. Register the Louisiana taxes that apply, in LaTAP, using Register My Business. geauxBIZ can start that registration with the formation filing. Do not open a sales tax account unless the business has to collect Louisiana sales tax. Registering early can create returns even when no tax is due. Do not open withholding until you have employees and have to withhold Louisiana income tax¹.
3. If you sell taxable goods or services in Louisiana and you have a location here, register for sales tax and for the local tax. A dealer has to get a sales tax certificate from the Department of Revenue. The state rate is 5%. The tax reaches tangible personal property and digital products sold in the state. Business utilities are 2% (boiler fuel stays at the general rate). Local sales and use taxes are added on top of the state tax³. The rate page does not print one combined parish rate. Use the collector for the parish where the sale is sourced. Returns are due on or before the 20th of the month after the month or quarter being reported². A seller with a physical presence is a dealer and collects state and local tax under the regular rules⁴.
4. If you sell into Louisiana and you have no location here, read the remote-seller rules before you collect anything. You are over the threshold when gross revenue from taxable sales delivered into Louisiana was more than $100,000 in the previous or current calendar year. That revenue test is the only one in R.S. 47:301(4)(k)⁶. Act 15 of the 2023 Regular Session repealed the 200-transaction test, effective August 1, 2023⁵. The commission’s FAQ still lists 200 or more separate transactions as a second test. Over the threshold, you register with the Sales and Use Tax Commission for Remote Sellers. You file one commission return for state and parish tax. A remote seller does not also register with the state and each parish⁴. Having a location takes you out of that definition and back to step 3.
5. If you are a person who must file a federal return, calendar the Louisiana individual return. It covers Louisiana residents, part-year residents, and nonresidents with Louisiana-source income who have to file a federal return. The rate is 3%⁹ for periods beginning on or after January 1, 2025. The return is due May 15 of the following year¹⁰. This page does not compute the tax.
6. If the business is taxed as a C corporation, calendar the corporation return. File it the 15th day of the fifth month after the accounting period ends. The due date is May 15 for a calendar-year filer. The rate is 5.5%. You can get an automatic six-month extension to file if a federal extension was requested on time. An extension to file is not an extension to pay. Estimated payments are required when the tax after credits can reasonably be expected to be $1,000⁷ or more. Pay them in LaTAP.
7. If you elect S status, check the Louisiana corporation return. Louisiana does not follow the IRS on every S corporation point. An S corporation may still have to file a Louisiana corporation income tax return⁷. The election is federal, on Form 2553¹⁷. This page does not pick it.
8. If the business is an LLC, follow the federal classification. An LLC taxed as a corporation federally is generally taxed as a corporation in Louisiana. An LLC taxed as a partnership federally is generally treated as a partnership⁷. A single-member LLC that is disregarded for federal tax does not, on these pages, get its own Louisiana corporation return. The owner may still have the individual return in step 5.
9. Register for unemployment tax when you first pay wages in Louisiana. Do it within 30 days of that first payment, even if you are not liable yet, at Louisiana Works. You are liable at $1,500 of wages in a calendar quarter, or if you have someone employed during part of a day in 20 different weeks in the year. Other tests cover a business that takes over another employer, farm work, and household employees. Read the employer guide for those. The tax is paid by the employer, not the employee, and it is not deducted from wages. For 2026, the wage base is the first $7,000 of each employee’s wages. The 2026 base depends on the balance in the Louisiana Unemployment Trust Fund. The rate notice for the account is the figure to use. A new employer pays the weighted average rate for employers in the same industrial classification, not one rate printed for every new employer¹². The 2026 experience table runs from 0.09% to 6.2%¹³. That range is not the new-employer rate.
10. Report new hires to the Department of Children and Family Services. Use its New Hire Registry. The report is due no later than twenty days after the hire or rehire. It covers the hiring of any person you expect to pay, and the return of an employee who was laid off, furloughed, separated, granted leave without pay, or terminated. A miss can mean a civil penalty of not more than twenty-five dollars, or not more than five hundred dollars if the miss is a conspiracy to withhold or falsify the report¹⁴. The statute is R.S. 46:236.14. The hiring guide covers the federal side.

What you get back

An EIN from the IRS if you applied, a Louisiana tax account only for the taxes you registered, and an unemployment account number once Louisiana Works issues one. There is no separate state business-license number in this step. Local occupational licenses are on Licenses and permits.