NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) – Louisianans, on average, pay almost 10 percent in sales taxes, making Louisiana the state with the highest sales tax rate in the nation.
That finding came out in the annual sales tax report from the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank that studies tax policy.
Louisiana’s average combined sales tax rate – calculating both local and state sales taxes – is 9.98 percent. Tennessee came in second with a combined sales tax rate of 9.46 percent.
Louisiana has a 5 percent state sales tax, in addition to local sales taxes, which vary from parish to parish.
Lawmakers voted in 2016 to increase the state’s sales tax rate from 4 percent to 5 percent to cope with a massive state budget shortfall.
In Orleans Parish, the combined sales tax rate is 10 percent, and in Jefferson Parish, it’s 9.75 percent.
Statewide sales taxes are collected in 45 states, according to the report, and local sales taxes are collected in 38 states.
Read the full report here.