BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Louisiana shoppers will see state sales taxes suspended for two days in November, under a bill passed by lawmakers in their latest special session and signed into law by Gov. John Bel Edwards.
House Speaker Clay Schexnayder, a Gonzales Republican, sponsored the measure to help residents and businesses recovering from Hurricanes Laura and Delta and coping with the coronavirus pandemic.
The state sales tax holiday will be held on Nov. 20 and 21. Louisiana’s 4.45% state sales taxes will not be charged on the first $2,500 of a purchase. The holiday doesn’t cover car, truck and other vehicle purchases. And it doesn’t apply to local sales taxes.
The state is estimated to lose $4.5 million in sales tax collections because of the tax holiday, according to a nonpartisan financial analysis of the bill.
Louisiana has had several sales tax holidays in recent years, but they’ve been suspended through mid-2025 as part of a tax deal that lawmakers and Edwards reached two years ago to balance the state’s budget.
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The bill is filed as House Bill 26.
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