Louisiana Launches Combined State & Parish Tax Return

The Louisiana Department of Revenue has confirmed a major procedural change to sales and use tax compliance by introducing a single, combined state and parish return. With the new return in place, the old system under which taxable persons file one state and multiple separate parish returns will be replaced, thus simplifying the compliance process.

Impact for Taxable Persons

As announced by the Louisiana Department of Revenue, all filings under the new model will be processed through the Parish E-File system, which will act as the central platform for both state and local reporting. To benefit from this new online system, taxable persons must register with Parish E-File and obtain a unique identification number. 

Taxable persons must submit a physical location address, valid state and local sales tax account numbers, and supporting documentation such as business licenses and incorporation records, to complete the registration process. The unique identification number links the combined return to all underlying local tax obligations, ensuring that parish-level reporting is consolidated and aligned with the state filing. 

The new system becomes mandatory on January 1, 2026, and applies to reporting periods ending in December 2025. In practice, replacing the existing single and multi-jurisdiction sales tax returns currently available through Parish E-File with a combined return will result in monthly filing for many businesses, since a single location with a monthly obligation will set the filing frequency for all tax accounts tied to that location. 

Consequently, taxable persons should proactively align all filing frequencies to the most frequent cycle before registering for the unique identification number to avoid inconsistencies once the new system goes live. Additionally, gross receipts reported on the combined return must be consistent across all linked accounts.

Conclusion

In its public notice, the Department of Revenue emphasized that, to ensure accurate and uninterrupted reporting under the new rules, taxable persons should complete all necessary parish registrations before the January filing for December taxes, as missing registrations could prevent proper processing of the combined return.

Notably, the Department of Revenue underlined that additional guidance and details are available through the Parish E-File FAQ section once the taxable persons log in to their account, as well as on the Louisiana Uniform Local Sales Tax Board’s online sales tax filing information page.

Source: Louisiana Department of Revenue - Parish E-File