Property Tax Louisiana: Parish Rates, the Homestead Exemption, and Deadlines

The typical Louisiana homeowner pays $1,180 a year on a house worth $216,500, according to the Census Bureau, which works out to 0.55 percent of value. Parish by parish the spread is wide: 0.15 percent in East Feliciana at the low end and 0.83 percent in Orleans at the top. This Louisiana property tax calculator multiplies the value you type by the ratio between what owner-occupants in your parish pay and what their homes are worth, then shows the local median bill beside it. Enter fair market value, not the assessed value on your notice, and do not subtract the homestead exemption yourself; each parish ratio already reflects it.

The $75,000 Homestead Exemption, and the City Millage It Does Not Touch

Nothing shapes a Louisiana bill more than the homestead exemption in Article VII, Section 20 of the state constitution. It removes the first $7,500 of assessed value from an owner-occupied home, which equals $75,000 of market value, on up to 160 acres. The amount is a flat dollar figure written into the constitution rather than a percentage, so it matters far more on a modest house than on an expensive one.

The constitution says the exemption “shall not extend to municipal taxes.” If your home sits inside Baton Rouge, Shreveport, Lafayette, or any other incorporated town, the city’s own millage is charged on your full assessed value, while parish, school, sheriff, and other non-city levies see the reduced figure. Orleans Parish is the exception: there the exemption also covers general city, school, and levee taxes. Owners file with the parish assessor; West Baton Rouge’s assessor, for one, takes applications through December 31 of the year the home was bought.

From Fair Market Value to Assessed Value to Mills

Article VII, Section 18 sets the assessment ratios. Land and residential improvements are assessed at 10 percent of fair market value; other improvements and personal property at 15 percent; public service property at 25 percent. The parish assessor sets values, and the Louisiana Tax Commission reviews and accepts each parish’s assessment list.

Rates are quoted in mills, where one mill is $1 per $1,000 of assessed value. A home sits in a ward or taxing district that stacks millages from the parish government, the school board, the sheriff and assessor, levee and other special districts, and often a municipality.

Here is the arithmetic on a $250,000 homestead. Ten percent gives $25,000 of assessed value. The exemption takes $7,500 off, leaving $17,500 for parish levies, so every 10 mills of parish, school, or district millage costs $175. If the house is inside a town outside Orleans, every 10 mills of city millage costs $250, because it applies to the full $25,000. A homestead worth $75,000 or less owes no millage at all outside city levies.

Parish Ratios From East Feliciana (0.15%) to Orleans (0.83%)

On the Census Bureau’s 2024 five year estimates, Orleans has the highest ratio at 0.83 percent, followed by St. Tammany at 0.71, East Baton Rouge at 0.67, Bossier at 0.64, and West Feliciana at 0.63. The low end runs East Feliciana 0.15, Avoyelles 0.20, Allen and Tensas 0.26, and East Carroll and Richland 0.28. The middle parish sits at 0.44 percent, and 52 of the 63 parishes in the calculator fall below the 0.55 statewide figure, with Rapides right on it. The statewide number is higher than the typical parish because the most populous parishes, with pricier homes, carry the bigger ratios.

Orleans also has the largest median bill, $2,606 on a $315,700 home, ahead of St. Tammany at $2,028. Tensas has the smallest, $221, and St. Helena has the lowest median home value, $77,300. West Carroll is not in the calculator: the Census reports its median payment only as “under $200,” and about half its owners pay nothing.

Two examples run through the tool:

• East Baton Rouge Parish, $300,000 home: 0.67 percent gives $2,010 a year, or $167.50 a month, which is $354 more than the parish’s $1,656 median bill.
• Lafayette Parish, $250,000 home: 0.57 percent gives $1,425 a year, or $118.75 a month, $45 above the $1,380 median.

The same $250,000 house would be estimated at $2,075 a year at the Orleans ratio and $375 at the East Feliciana ratio.

Because $75,000 of every homestead is shielded, a house worth well above the parish median usually pays a larger share of its value than the ratio shows, and a cheaper one pays less. A rental or camp with no homestead on file pays on the full assessed value and can land well above its parish ratio. Some online estimators apply a single statewide rate near 0.9 percent; the Census ratio of what Louisiana owners really pay is 0.55. That Census payment median also skips owners whose exemption leaves no bill, while the value median counts them, so in parishes full of modest homes the ratio can overstate the typical cost.

Four Year Reappraisal and the Millage Rollback

The constitution requires every parish to reappraise property at intervals of no more than four years. The last statewide reappraisal took effect in 2024, and the next is due for 2028. In a reappraisal year, taxing bodies must roll their millage back (or up) so total collections do not change just because values moved. A body that rolled back may then vote to “roll forward” toward the prior rate, with a two-thirds vote of its governing board after a public hearing; a single official such as a sheriff or assessor decides alone.

When reappraisal raises the assessed value of a homestead by more than 50 percent, the collector phases in the extra liability over four years, a quarter at a time.

The Freeze, Veteran Exemptions, and Other Relief

• Special assessment level: a freeze on the assessed value of a homestead for owners 65 or older, veterans with a service-connected disability rating of 50 percent or more, and people who are permanently and totally disabled. Household adjusted gross income must stay under a limit that voters raised from $50,000 to $100,000 in 2020; indexing began with the 2026 tax year, and assessors list $102,700 for 2026 applications. The freeze ends when the home is sold.
• Disabled veterans: on top of the homestead exemption, a 50 to 69 percent rating removes another $2,500 of assessed value ($25,000 of market value), a 70 to 99 percent rating removes $4,500 ($45,000), and a 100 percent or unemployability rating exempts the home entirely. A qualifying surviving spouse who keeps living in the home stays eligible.

Open Rolls, the Board of Review, and the Tax Commission

Every assessor must open the parish rolls for public inspection for 15 days, sometime between August 15 and September 15; in Orleans Parish the window runs July 15 to August 15. If your assessed value rose 15 percent or more over the prior year, the assessor has to notify you. Start by asking the assessor to review the value during inspection. If that fails, file a complaint with the parish board of review no later than seven days before its public hearing. A decision you disagree with can go to the Louisiana Tax Commission within 30 calendar days of receiving the board’s ruling.

December 31, 1 Percent Interest, and the Tax Sale

Each December the parish tax collector (the sheriff, outside New Orleans) sends bills, and under R.S. 47:2127 they must be paid by December 31. The next day they are delinquent, and interest runs at 1 percent per month or any part of a month, not compounded. New Orleans bills come from the city Bureau of Treasury on their own schedule; in 2026 the city gave owners until February 28 to pay before interest. Unpaid parcels go to a tax sale, and the owner then has three years to redeem by paying the taxes, interest, penalties, and costs.

What the November 2026 Ballot Could Change for 2027

On November 3, 2026, Louisiana voters decide several property tax amendments. One, from House Bill 300 of the 2025 session, would lift the freeze’s income limit from $100,000 to $150,000 starting with the 2027 tax year, with inflation indexing from 2028, and would bar taxing bodies from shifting the lost revenue onto other owners. Another would allow an added exemption, growing with age, for owners 65 and older who already hold the freeze, but only where local voters approve it. A third would let taxing bodies raise millage back up toward voter-approved maximums after lowering it.

Because the ACS 2024 five year file pools survey answers gathered in 2020 through 2024, these parish ratios straddle the 2024 reappraisal; each December release refreshes them.

Sources: US Census Bureau, 2024 American Community Survey five-year estimates (tables B25077 and B25103); Louisiana Constitution Article VII, Sections 18, 20, and 21; La. R.S. 47:2127; Louisiana Administrative Code Title 61, Part V, Section 3101; Louisiana House Fiscal Division, “Louisiana Property Tax Basics”; House Bill 300 (2025 Regular Session) digest; parish assessor exemption pages; City of New Orleans Bureau of Treasury.