Louisiana Paycheck Calculator (2026)

Act 16 of the 2024 special legislative session replaced Louisiana's prior progressive schedule with a flat 3% state income tax, and the single rate now sits at the low end of the flat-rate group. Paired with it is a standard deduction that is large for a state charging so little: $12,500 for a single filer, double that on a joint return, subtracted before the rate applies. Louisiana used to allow something else as well, and it is worth being clear that it no longer does. Residents once deducted their federal income tax on the state return, as Alabama's still do. Louisiana repealed that in 2021, effective from the 2022 tax year, and the statute that carried it now reads simply as repealed. Any estimate still crediting a Louisiana filer for it is describing a law that has not been in force for four years. Louisiana's economy spans New Orleans hospitality and tourism, Baton Rouge state-government employment, the petrochemical corridor between the two cities, oil and gas extraction across the southern parishes, and Acadiana's cultural identity centered on Lafayette. Port of South Louisiana, along the lower Mississippi, ranks as the largest US port by cargo tonnage. The state runs no SDI program and no parish or city wage tax in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Shreveport, Lafayette, or Lake Charles. At $85,000 for a single filer, federal income tax lands at $9,870, state income tax at $2,175, combined FICA at $6,503, and take-home for the year at $66,453. The effective total rate is 21.82%.