Louisiana Bookkeeping Services

Louisiana just rewrote its tax code — and most of what you read online is already out of date. The graduated corporate income tax is gone, replaced by a flat 5.5% starting with 2025. The individual rate is a flat 3%. The corporation franchise tax — the levy on capital that made Louisiana infamous among CFOs — is repealed outright for periods beginning on or after January 1, 2026. What did not get simpler: a 5% state sales tax stacked with parish rates that are filed separately, an annual report due on your anniversary date, and local filings that vary parish by parish. We have kept books for businesses remotely since 2005, and dedicated bookkeepers from $75/month keep every one of those filings tax-ready.

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On This Page

• Louisiana’s small-business tax landscape
• The 2025–26 reform: flat rates in, franchise tax out
• Sales tax: 5% to the state, parish rates filed separately
• Annual reports, payroll, and the rest of the calendar
• Louisiana cities we serve
• Louisiana FAQs

Louisiana’s Small-Business Tax Landscape

Figures from Louisiana Department of Revenue (revenue.louisiana.gov), Louisiana Secretary of State, and Louisiana Workforce Commission official sources — figures verified July 2026. This is bookkeeping context, not tax advice — confirm current-year specifics with the Louisiana Department of Revenue and your CPA before filing.

The 2025–26 Reform: Flat Rates In, Franchise Tax Out

Louisiana’s 2024 special-session tax package is the biggest rewrite the state has seen in decades, and it lands in two waves. Wave one, effective for periods beginning January 1, 2025: the corporate income tax became a flat 5.5% — the old graduated schedule that topped out at 7.5% is gone — paired with a new $20,000 corporate standard deduction. Individuals and pass-through owners moved to a flat 3% at the same time, down from a top rate of 4.25%. Wave two, effective for periods beginning January 1, 2026: the corporation franchise tax is repealed. Entirely. The tax on capital employed in Louisiana that punished companies for holding assets in-state simply no longer accrues for 2026-and-later periods.

The bookkeeping catch is transitional, and it is real. Franchise tax periods that began before 2026 still had to be filed and paid — final CIFT-620 filings, closing balances, and capital computations all come out of the ledger, not out of thin air. And the flat 5.5% only simplifies the rate, not the return: Louisiana taxable income still starts from books that are reconciled, classified, and closed on time, and calendar-year corporate returns are still due the 15th day of the fifth month — May 15. A dedicated bookkeeper doing daily virtual bookkeeping is what turns a reform year — when your CPA has new rules to apply — into a clean handoff instead of a reconstruction project.

Sales Tax: 5% to the State, Parish Rates Filed Separately

Effective January 1, 2025, the state sales and use tax rate is 5%, up from 4.45%. State returns go to the Department of Revenue by the 20th of the following month, with a quarterly option for dealers whose tax averages under $500 a month. But here is the part that surprises every out-of-state owner: Louisiana is one of the few states where local sales taxes are not filed on the state return. Parish and municipal rates — often as large as the state’s — are reported separately to each parish’s own collector, on the parish’s own form, on the parish’s own schedule. In New Orleans, for example, the combined rate on tangible personal property is 10%, and the city’s share goes to the Bureau of Revenue, not to Baton Rouge.

Two returns per period means two liability balances to track, two remittances to reconcile, and twice the opportunity for collected tax to quietly commingle with operating cash. We book sales tax to its own liability accounts — state and local separately — from the first transaction, so both filings are transfers, not scrambles. Months behind on any of this? Catch-up bookkeeping rebuilds the year fast.

Annual Reports, Payroll, and the Rest of the Calendar

Every Louisiana LLC and corporation owes the Secretary of State an annual report — $30, filed through the geauxBIZ portal — due on the entity’s anniversary date, the date it was formed or qualified. Because the date is different for every business, it is exactly the kind of deadline that slips: no season, no reminder from your CPA, just a quiet lapse that ends with an entity showing “not in good standing” when a lender or a buyer looks it up. We track it as part of the compliance calendar for every Louisiana client.

Hiring adds the Louisiana Workforce Commission to the rotation. Unemployment insurance reports and contributions file quarterly, and a new employer’s rate is the average rate for its industry classification until it has been in the system long enough to earn an experience rating of its own. Your actual rate arrives on your LWC notice each year — which is why the books should carry this year’s figure, never a hard-coded guess from last year. Add the flat 3% state withholding on wages, and payroll liabilities become a monthly reconciliation item, not a year-end surprise. All of it — liability tracking, quarterly tie-outs, and the ledger entries behind them — is standard in a Maxim Liberty engagement.

Louisiana Cities We Serve

Dedicated local guide: New Orleans — plus Baton Rouge, Shreveport, Lafayette, and every corner of the state, all served remotely. Browse all locations.

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