Louisiana Auto Loan Calculator (with Louisiana Sales Tax & Fees)

Two things make Louisiana different from almost every other state, and both of them break the usual way a car payment gets estimated.

The first is that the local rate is sourced to where you live, not where you buy. The Louisiana Department of Revenue and the Office of Motor Vehicles both apply the tax at the rate for the purchaser's parish of domicile. Drive from Lafayette to a dealership in Baton Rouge and you still pay Lafayette Parish's rate. Every calculator that keys off dealer location is wrong for most Louisiana buyers, and so is every quote a salesperson gives you from memory of their own parish.

The second is that the local rate is large enough to dominate the state rate. LDR reports local rates ranging from 1.85% to 7%. The state rate is 5%. In much of Louisiana the parish and municipal portion is bigger than the state portion, which means the state rate on its own tells you close to nothing about what you will actually pay.

This calculator therefore does not ship a parish rate table. The authoritative per-parish automotive schedule is the OMV Parish Tax Table, and it could not be read from a primary source when this page was built. Rather than substitute general sales tax rates, which are a different set of numbers and would give you a confidently wrong answer, the local rate is left as an input for you to fill in. Get your figure from the OMV Parish Tax Table or from your dealer's title clerk, then enter it.

One more Louisiana specific worth knowing: the state rate itself has an expiry. The 5.00% rate was set by Act 11 of the 2024 Third Extraordinary Session and runs from January 1, 2025 through December 31, 2029, reverting to 4.75% on January 1, 2030.

The APR columns below are national averages, not Louisiana figures. No primary source publishes average auto loan APR by state: Experian's report has no geographic cut, the CFPB publishes state origination volume but no rates, and the New York Fed publishes state delinquency only. The payment column is the part that is specific to Louisiana, because it runs this calculator's own Louisiana tax and fee rules at each tier's rate.

Payment assumptions: $35,000 vehicle price, $0 trade-in, $5,000 cash down, $436 dealer documentation fee, 60-month term, new-vehicle APR applied to the Louisiana delivered price including tax and statutory fees. At the 6.39% overall new-car average the same purchase costs $630.25 a month.

The score bands are VantageScore 4.0, not FICO. The same borrower can land in a different tier under each model, so a FICO score pulled from a card issuer will not always match the band here. Source: Experian, State of the Automotive Finance Market, Q1 2026, slide 45.

Each row changes one input and leaves the rest at the baseline below. The dollar effects are this calculator's own output for Louisiana, not a rule of thumb.

Baseline: $35,000 vehicle price, $0 trade-in, $5,000 cash down, $436 documentation fee, 60 months at 7.25% APR, giving a $643.32 payment and $6,303.05 of total interest.

Louisiana's 5% state rate is temporary, set by Act 11 of 2024 for 2025 through 2029, and parish and municipal rates ride on top of it. Five steps.

1. Net taxable base. La. R.S. 47:301(13) excludes a trade-in of like property from sales price. The dealer documentation and compliance fee sits inside the taxable base; separately stated title and plate charges sit outside it.

2. Sales tax. The 5% state rate plus the combined parish and municipal rate for your domicile.

3. Title and plate. A fixed $88.50, being the $68.50 OMV title and registration charge and the $20.00 minimum two-year passenger plate fee. The plate fee is the number to watch. Louisiana computes it at 0.1% of assessed value per year on a two-year cycle with a $10,000 value floor, so $20.00 is a floor, not a typical figure. A $30,000 vehicle produces roughly $60 for the two years. OMV may also add an $8.00 handling fee, up to $6.00 for a local office, and $15.00 to record a lien on a UCC-1.

4. Amount financed. The trade-in works twice: it lowered the tax base in step one, and it reduces the balance you borrow.

5. Amortization. The financed amount amortizes as a fixed-rate installment loan:

where $P$ is the financed amount, $i$ is the monthly rate (APR divided by 12), and $n$ is the term in months. Each period's interest is the outstanding balance times $i$, the remainder reduces principal, and the schedule reconciles to zero at maturity.

Louisiana's 5% state rate is temporary, running to the end of 2029 under Act 11, and it is also only part of the bill: parish rates vary widely enough to move this purchase by more than $1,700. The state portion is shown alone first.

• Vehicle price: $35,000
• Trade-in allowance: $0
• Cash down: $5,000
• Dealer doc fee: $436
• Local rate: 0% (state portion shown alone)
• Term: 60 months at 7.25% APR

Step 1 -- The taxable base. Sales price including the doc fee, less a qualifying trade vehicle: $35,000 + $436 - $0 = $35,436.00

Step 2 -- State sales tax at 5%. $35,436.00 x 5% = $1,771.80

Step 3 -- Title and minimum plate fee, outside the base. $68.50 title + $20.00 plate = $88.50

Step 4 -- Total delivered price. $35,000 + $436.00 + $1,771.80 + $88.50 = $37,296.30

Step 5 -- Amount financed. $37,296.30 - $0 trade-in - $5,000 cash down = $32,296.30

Step 6 -- The monthly payment. $32,296.30 at 7.25% over 60 months = $643.32

Step 7 -- Month 1. $32,296.30 x (7.25% / 12) = $195.12 interest, $448.20 principal, balance $31,848.10

Step 8 -- Month 2. $31,848.10 x (7.25% / 12) = $192.42 interest, $450.90 principal, balance $31,397.20. Cumulative interest: $387.54

Step 9 -- The running total. Interest through month 12 is $2,159.12 with $26,735.58 outstanding. Over 60 months, $6,303.05

Now enter the local rate and watch what happens. At the low end of LDR's reported range, 1.85%, tax rises to $2,427.37 and the payment to $656.38. At a mid-range 5%, tax rises to $3,543.60 and the payment to $678.61. That spread of $1,771.80 in tax on one $35,000 car is entirely a function of which parish you live in, and it is why guessing the local rate is not a small error.

A $10,000 trade-in at the state rate alone drops the taxable base to $25,436, tax to $1,271.80, and the payment to $434.17, saving $500.00 in tax. At a 5% local rate the same trade-in saves $1,000.00, because the credit is worth the full combined rate.

• Your parish and municipal rate, unless you enter it. This is the largest single omission on the page, and it is deliberate. The OMV Parish Tax Table blocks automated reading, and general sales tax rate tables are not automotive rates. Confirm your figure before relying on any total here.
• The value-based plate fee. The $20.00 used in the fixed fees is the statutory two-year minimum, produced by the $10,000 assessed value floor. A typical new vehicle produces more. Expect roughly $60 for two years on a $30,000 car.
• Manufacturer rebates. Louisiana reduces the taxable base by qualifying rebates as well as by trades, which is unusual. This calculator does not model a rebate, so if you have one your actual tax will be lower than shown. Fold the rebate into the price yourself if you want the effect.
• Optional OMV charges. The $8.00 handling fee, the local office fee of up to $6.00, and lien recordation of $15.00 on a UCC-1 or $10.00 on other security agreements are not included.
• The 2030 rate reversion. The calculator uses the 5.00% rate in effect through December 31, 2029. Purchases on and after January 1, 2030 fall to 4.75% unless the legislature acts again.
• GAP insurance, service contracts, and aftermarket add-ons, unless you fold them into the vehicle price yourself.

• Using the dealer's parish rate. Tax follows the buyer's domicile in Louisiana. This is the error that costs the most and gets caught the latest, usually at the OMV window.
• Substituting the general sales tax rate for the parish automotive rate. They are different schedules. Reaching for the more easily found number is how most Louisiana estimates go wrong.
• Treating the 5% state rate as the whole bill. LDR's own range puts local rates between 1.85% and 7%. Nobody in Louisiana pays only 5%.
• Budgeting $20 for the plate. That figure is the minimum produced by a $10,000 value floor. On a new car the two-year plate fee is several times that.
• Forgetting the doc fee is taxed. La. R.S. 6:969.18 caps it, at a reported $436 for 2026, but the cap does not exempt it. At a 5% state rate plus a 5% local rate the $436 fee carries $43.60 of tax with it.
• Judging a loan by the monthly payment alone. Stretching this $32,296.30 balance from 60 to 72 months drops the payment to $554.51 and raises total finance charges from $6,303.05 to $7,627.95.

• Louisiana Department of Revenue, R-20164 Motor Vehicle Sales Tax (buyer-domicile sourcing; note the 6/20 edition still prints the superseded 4.45% rate) revenue.louisiana.gov
• La. R.S. 6:969.18 (dealer documentation and compliance fee cap and CPI-U adjustment) bls.gov/cpi
• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Truth in Lending Act (Regulation Z, 12 CFR 1026.22) disclosure requirements for installment credit. ecfr.gov/current/title-12/chapter-X/part-1026

Also consulted: La. R.S. 47:301 to 47:303 (state sales and use tax on vehicles, collected by OMV as agent for LDR); Act 11, 2024 Third Extraordinary Session (5.00% rate effective January 1, 2025 through December 31, 2029, reverting to 4.75%); La. R.S. 47:301(13) (trade-in of like property excluded from sales price); Louisiana DPS Office of Motor Vehicles, Policy 47.00 Sales Tax on Vehicle Transfers, revised January 5, 2026; Louisiana OMV ExpressLane, used title and registration fee schedule; La. R.S. 47:463 (vehicle registration license tax, value-based plate fee); Experian, State of the Automotive Finance Market, Q1 2026, slide 45 (average new and used auto loan APR by VantageScore 4.0 credit tier; national, no state level cut published).