How much tax is taken out of my paycheck in Louisiana?

One rate, charged on what is left after Louisiana subtracts a per-period share of the standard deduction from your L-4. The L-4 gives a head of household the same larger deduction as a married couple filing jointly, so on the same pay those two see the same Louisiana line once they claim it, while a single filer claiming the smaller one sees more.

How much is Louisiana state income tax?

For withholding it is one rate rather than a schedule, set slightly higher than the rate on the return so that a cushion is built in. From one employee to the next, the only thing that changes the Louisiana line is which standard deduction the L-4 claims.

What if I claim no deduction on Form L-4?

Then the whole wage is withheld at the rate with nothing subtracted first. The L-4 allows that choice for a married employee whose spouse works or anyone with a second job, and the state prints a column of its tables for it. It is also what an employer withholds from an employee who has handed in no L-4 at all, which is why the calculator uses it until a number is picked.

Does Louisiana withholding depend on how many children I have?

Not through the formula the state publishes for employers, which has no term for dependents or allowances. The only choice it reads is the standard deduction, so the number of children in a household does not move the Louisiana line on a paycheck.

Louisiana paycheck calculator

Louisiana's withholding formula has two parts and no more: a standard deduction picked on Form L-4, spread evenly over the pay periods of the year, and one withholding rate on what remains. The L-4 gives three answers to choose from: no deduction, the single deduction, or a larger one shared by joint filers, qualifying surviving spouses and heads of household.

Take-home pay

$1,629.05

per bi-weekly (26 per year) period

Gross pay: $2,000.00
Federal Income Tax: −$156.15
Social Security: −$124.00
Medicare: −$29.00
LA State Income Tax No LA exemption code was chosen, so this line is withheld as for an employee who filed no Form L-4: without any standard deduction, which is what LA requires of an employer holding none. Pick the code from the employee's Form L-4 to withhold by it.: −$61.80
Net pay: $1,629.05

Carries these figures into a full Louisiana pay stub you can preview and download.

How Louisiana withholding is worked out

The withholding rate is set a little above the rate of the tax itself, on purpose, as a cushion; the line printed with the schedule names both and points to the Department of Revenue's explanation. The calculator takes the deduction from the number picked for block A of the L-4: 0 for none, 1 for the smaller deduction, 2 for the larger. With no number picked it does what the L-4 asks of an employer holding no certificate and subtracts nothing, so the rate falls on the whole wage. The formula reads nothing else, so there is no allowance or dependent count to fill in.

These are withholding figures: what an employer takes out of one paycheck, which is not the same calculation as the one on an annual return.

Louisiana reads one schedule whatever the filing status. Wages are annualised first, so the figures below are annual.

An employee who files no Form L-4, or names no code on it, is withheld without any standard deduction.

Every filing status
Annual wages	Tax on the lower figure	Rate on the rest
$0.00 and up	$0.00	3.09%

By the code on the state's form

0 - no standard deduction

1 - single or married filing separately: standard deduction $12,875.00

2 - married filing jointly, qualifying surviving spouse or head of household: standard deduction $25,750.00

Taken off the income before the schedule.

Louisiana withholds at 3.09% rather than the 3% tax rate, as a deliberate cushion.

Withholding Tables and Formulas, R-1306 (1/26), effective on or after 1 January 2026. The standard deductions and the rate come from the computer formula method printed there, which divides the annual deduction by the number of pay periods. The wage-bracket tables in the same document are not reproduced: they read the same formula off a grid, and the formula covers every wage they do. The deduction follows the number in block A of Form L-4 (R-1300, 1/26), not the filing status: "0" is none, "1" the single figure and "2" the joint one, and R-1306 lets any employee claim either of the last two. An employee who names none is read as one who filed no L-4, withheld "without any standard deduction". Before that the deduction was read off the filing status alone, and block A could not be answered at all.

Louisiana sources

Frequently asked questions

What Louisiana law asks of a pay stub

Whether a stub is required, how it may be delivered, and the minimum wage and pay frequency rules.

Louisiana pay stub requirements