Louisiana sales tax holidays on vacation through June 30, 2025

Louisiana’s Secretary of Revenue, Kimberly Lewis Robinson, has announced the temporary cessation of state sales tax holidays. As a result, there will not be an August sales tax holiday in Louisiana.

The state normally offers three sales tax holidays per year:

• A hurricane preparedness sales tax holiday, the last Saturday and Sunday in May
• A (back-to-school) sales tax holiday, the first Friday and Saturday in August
• A Second Amendment weekend sales tax holiday, the first Friday through Sunday in September

Since April 1, 2016, qualifying items have been subject to a reduced rate of state sales tax rather than a sales tax exemption during sales tax holidays. The change was one of many made to prevent the state from tumbling off a looming fiscal cliff. It helped postpone the fall, but didn’t avert it.

To solve the state’s continuing fiscal problems, the Louisiana Legislature enacted numerous sales tax changes in June 2018, including changing the state sales tax rate from 5 percent (where it had been since April 1, 2016) to 4.45 percent (instead of the 4 percent many lawmakers wanted). It also left certain aspects of the sales tax open to interpretation.

As Secretary Robinson explains in Revenue Information Bulletin No. 18-020, the three sales tax holidays “are not among the list of approved exclusions and exemptions from the 4.45 percent state sales tax.” Consequently, “items of tangible personal property purchased during the sales tax holiday periods will be subject to the full state sales tax rate of 4.45% through June 30, 2025.”

However, Secretary Robinson goes on to explain: “The local sales tax exemptions in place for the Louisiana Second Amendment Weekend Sales Tax Holiday will not be impacted” by Act 1.

In other words, although state sales tax will continue to apply to sales of all taxable goods and services during the September tax-free period, qualifying items will be exempt from applicable local sales and use taxes. Qualifying items include ammunition, firearms, and hunting supplies. Learn more about the annual Second Amendment weekend sales tax holiday here.

Sales tax compliance in Louisiana is never easy, as evidenced by the changes described above. Automated sales tax software can help. Learn more.