Start a business in Louisiana

Forming the company is the easy part. What catches people out in Louisiana is that registering with the state does not register you with your parish, and the parish is where most of the tax actually lives.

Checked 27 August 2026

This is the whole sequence, in the order it has to happen, with what each step costs and which office you are dealing with. The Secretary of State fees here are the schedule that took effect on 1 October 2026, checked on 9 October 2026.

The fees went up on 1 October 2026. Under Act 921 of the 2026 Regular Session, filing an LLC is now $125, up from $100, and the annual report is $35, up from $30.

Not sure the idea is worth filing for yet? Filing commits you to $125 now and $35 every year after, whether or not the business trades. Score your idea first: Miles researches its market and scores it from 0 to 100, with the sources behind every factor, and you see the score before you pay Bizer anything.

The sequence

1. Pick the entity and check the name is free. Most small Louisiana businesses form an LLC. A sole proprietorship needs no filing at all, but gives you no liability separation. Search the Secretary of State's commercial database before you settle on a name. Louisiana Secretary of State, free to search.
2. File the articles of organization. Online with the Secretary of State. This is the step that creates the company and gives you a charter number. $125, under Act 921 of the 2026 Regular Session.
3. Get an EIN from the IRS. The federal tax number, needed to open a business bank account and run payroll. Issued immediately online by the Internal Revenue Service, free, and anyone charging you for it is selling you nothing.
4. Register with the Louisiana Department of Revenue. If you sell goods or taxable services you register for state sales tax here. This also covers state withholding if you will have employees. Free to register.
5. Register with your parish sales tax collector, separately. This is the step people miss. Louisiana collects the local portion of sales tax locally, so registering with the state does not register you with your parish, and the local portion is usually larger than the state's 5 percent. Free to register, and not optional. Find your parish, its rate and its collector in the rate tables.
6. Buy an occupational license, if your parish or town levies one. A separate annual tax on gross receipts, nothing to do with sales tax. 40 of Louisiana's 64 parishes levy it outside their towns, most towns levy their own inside the town line, and nine parishes levy none at all. Check yours in the parish guides. From $50 a year for a small retailer, scaling with gross receipts.
7. Insurance, and workers compensation if you hire. Louisiana requires workers compensation cover once you have employees, with no minimum headcount exemption for most trades. Contractors, food businesses and anyone working on a client's premises will also be asked for general liability before they are allowed to start. Bought from a private insurer, the cost varies, and the certificate is often what unlocks the first contract.
8. Check whether your trade needs a state license. Contractors above the threshold, food service, alcohol, cosmetology, real estate and dozens of other trades are licensed by their own state board. This is separate from everything above, the cost varies widely by board, and doing the work without it is the expensive mistake.

What it actually costs

A plain LLC with no trade licence, formed today:

• Articles of organization. Secretary of State, $125.
• EIN. IRS, $0.
• State tax registration. Department of Revenue, $0.
• Parish tax registration. Parish collector, $0.
• Occupational license for a small retailer. Parish or town, from $50.
• Annual report, every year after. Secretary of State, $35.

So the floor is around $175 in the first year for a small retailer in a parish that levies a licence, and $125 where none is levied. Anything quoted well above that is a service fee, not a government fee.

The occupational license, explained properly

It is an annual tax on gross receipts, set in state law at R.S. 47:354 to 47:357, so the schedules are the same statewide even though whether it is levied is a local decision. A retailer pays $50 under $50,000 of gross sales, $120 at $150,000, $500 at $500,000, climbing to $6,200 above $5.5 million. Wholesalers, service businesses, lenders and commission agents each have their own table.

It is due 1 January and delinquent from 1 March. Late costs 5 percent per 30 days up to 25 percent, plus interest. The schedule is a statutory maximum and a few jurisdictions adopt less, so confirm the figure with the collector before you pay.

The four things people get wrong

• Thinking state registration covers the parish. It does not. Two registrations, two offices, two returns.
• Charging your own parish rate on out of parish work. Louisiana sales tax follows the job site. Work performed in another parish is charged and remitted at that parish's rate, to that parish's collector.
• Missing the occupational license entirely. It is invisible until a notice arrives, because nothing in the state formation process mentions it.
• Letting the annual report lapse. $35 a year keeps the company in good standing, and falling out of it is what stops a loan or a contract months later. It is discovered at the worst possible moment.

Where to go next

• Score your idea first: a 0 to 100 read on your idea's market, with sources, before you file anything.
• Find your parish: sales tax, occupational license and who collects each, parish by parish.
• Look up your exact rate: every taxing jurisdiction with its return column and the local and state split.
• Paying for it: what funding actually exists in Louisiana in 2026, and what quietly ended last year.
• Growing once you are open: the first hire, the first job across a parish line and the first real contract.

Sources

• Filing fees and the 1 October 2026 increase. Act 921 of the 2026 Regular Session, and the Louisiana Secretary of State fee schedule effective 1 October 2026. Checked 9 October 2026.
• Occupational license schedules and deadlines. R.S. 47:341 to 47:357, and the Louisiana Association of Tax Administrators occupational license directory covering all 64 parishes.
• Sales tax registration and rates. Louisiana Department of Revenue and each parish collector, via the Louisiana Association of Tax Administrators.

Fees change and trades differ, so confirm with the office named before you file or pay.