Utilize our free Lousiana paycheck calculator to calculate your net pay or take-home pay by entering your period or yearly income along with the necessary federal, state, and local W4 information. Louisiana's state income tax brackets run from 2.00% to 6.00%.
Whether setting up a new business or comparing different job offers, paycheck calculation for employees is an unavoidable job. So if you are planning to move to Louisiana and start your new job or business, then you must read this Louisiana paycheck guide. From moving to Louisiana to paycheck calculation, this guide will provide you with every step. So let's get started.
Louisiana, also known as The Pelican State is a southeastern U.S. state located on the Gulf of Mexico. This state is a magical place known for Cajun cuisine, Creole flavor, and great Southern hospitality.
This state offers numerous reasons for people to move in here including low cost of living, lower housing prices, improving job market, diverse landscape, amazingly fun-loving people.
Here are a few things you must know about, before moving to Louisiana:
Louisiana Economy is on the rise after a downward slide, especially getting a boost due to wild nightlife and tourism. This state has an unemployment rate of 4.4% (0.2% higher than the national average), and an overall rank of 49th for "best states for the job and economic opportunities", that may sound less appealing. However, with large capital projects planned and growing economy, the experts are projecting significant growth in the job market especially in industries like tourism, agriculture, and health care, thus one must avail the opportunity before the boom.
Housing is quite reasonable in Louisiana. With the current median home value of $141,397 and the median rent price of $1,200, this state is ranked 19th overall for affordability, and 26th for affordable cost of living by U.S. News.
Cost of Living in Louisiana considering factors like transportation, healthcare, housing, food, and energy, is significantly lower than the national average, with the point of 87, where the national average is 100 points.
Louisiana State offers a high-quality education in numerous schools, colleges, and universities across the state. Some of its acclaimed institutions are Louisiana State University, University of New Orleans, and Louisiana Tech in Ruston.
Louisiana State is known for its festive lifestyle, jazz music, delicious cosine, and fun-loving people. The state is also known as Festival Capital of America due to 400 plus festivals every year to celebrate literally everything. Moreover, this state offers many other opportunities for outdoor lovers including fishing, golf, and kayaking. Some popular must-visit spots here are Bourbon Street, Jackson Square, and the St Louis Cathedral, Mardi Gras and many more.
After reading all the earlier mentioned perks, you must have fallen in love with this state. So if you already made up your mind to settle in here, and start a new life with a new business or job, then one thing you must know is the estimated employment cost of your business or your take-home pay as an employee.
We know, calculating Paycheck or take-home pay is not an easy job, as it includes several factors like hours worked, taxes, federal and state laws and tons of calculations that can be a bit tricky and confusing. But don't you worry! We have done all the hard work for you.
Our experts have created a one-of-its-kind Louisiana Paycheck Calculator along with a comprehensive Paycheck calculation guide that would educate you with Federal State Payroll facts, taxes & laws as well as guide you to deduce the exact paycheck amount for the employee.
So, without wasting any of your time, let's get started with some of the interesting Louisiana State Payroll facts.
As you are now well aware of Louisiana State Payroll Facts, let's get started with paycheck calculation. Following are the steps that are generally followed to calculate paycheck:
Hourly Base Employees are paid for each hour they work in a day or a week, at the mutually agreed hourly rate. However, the mutually agreed hourly rate must be as per the Federal and State Minimum Wage law.
Hourly Employees are also entitled to receive overtime, for each excess hours worked after Regular worked hours in a day or week. The overtime rate in most of the states is one and a half times the regular hourly rate.
Salaried employees receive a fixed but mutually agreed on pay, for a decided pay frequency, usually semi-monthly or monthly. However, for gross payment determination for a pay period, the annual salary is divided by the pay frequency.
Most of the salaried employees are exempted from Overtime law. Therefore, they are not entitled to receive overtime, regardless of how many excess hours they work. However, some exceptional salaried employees may be eligible to receive overtime according to federal or state law.
Pre-Tax Deduction is an amount deducted from employee's gross pay before any withholding tax is deducted. These deductions have several advantages, including the reduction of taxable wages. Hence, increasing the take-home pay of an employee. However, not all deductions can be considered as free from all taxes, which means some of the deductions may require certain taxes to be withheld.
Some of the standard Pre-tax deductions are:
Note: Pre-Tax deduction rate changes from year to year, according to inflation and costs of living by the federal government. Therefore, you must keep yourself updated with all rates before making any deductions.
Federal Taxes are taxes deducted from almost every employee, regardless of which state or county they work in.
Federal Taxes are calculated according to the details provided by the employee on Form W-4, which comprises of income, filing status, number of dependents, number of allowances, number of jobs, etc.
The details are form W-4, are assessed and used by the employer to deduce the federal tax bracket, in which the employee's taxable wage lay upon.
Federal Taxes ranges from 0% to 37% have seven tax brackets, depending on filing status, income, and the number of allowances claimed. Below is the income tax details for the year 2024:
Taxable Income | Rate |
---|---|
$0 - $9,700 | 10% |
$9,700 - $39,475 | 12% |
$39,475 - $84,200 | 22% |
$84,200 - $160,725 | 24% |
$160,725 - $204,100 | 32% |
$204,100 - $510,300 | 35% |
$510,300+ | 37% |
Taxable Income | Rate |
---|---|
$0 - $19,400 | 10% |
$19,400 - $78,950 | 12% |
$78,950 - $168,400 | 22% |
$168,400 - $321,450 | 24% |
$321,450 - $408,200 | 32% |
$408,200 - $612,350 | 35% |
$612,350+ | 37% |
Taxable Income | Rate |
---|---|
$0 - $9,700 | 10% |
$9,700 - $39,475 | 12% |
$39,475 - $84,200 | 22% |
$84,200 - $160,725 | 24% |
$160,725 - $204,100 | 32% |
$204,100 - $306,175 | 35% |
$306,175+ | 37% |
Taxable Income | Rate |
---|---|
$0 - $13,850 | 10% |
$13,850 - $52,850 | 12% |
$52,850 - $84,200 | 22% |
$84,200 - $160,700 | 24% |
$160,700 - $204,100 | 32% |
$204,100 - $510,300 | 35% |
$510,300+ | 37% |
Along with Federal Withholding, employers are also required to withhold Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) taxes from the employee's paycheck as well as pay a matching amount themselves to the IRS.
There are two types of FICA taxes:
Employers are entitled to withhold 6.2% from the first $132,900 (wage base limit for 2024), taxable wages earned by the employee. Moreover, the employer is also required to pay an equal amount to the IRS for each employee.
Medicare tax is another type of FICA Tax that an employer must withhold from the taxable gross wage of the employee, at the rate of 1.45%. Unlike social security, there is no wage base limit. However, if the employee earns more than the defined threshold than he/she is subjected to an additional 0.9% of the Additional Medicare Tax rate, for every dollar earned above the threshold amount.
Like Social Security, IRS also requires the employer to pay an equal amount of Medicare tax for each employee.
The Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA) is a tax that the IRS requires the employer to pay without deducting anything from the employee's paycheck.
The FUTA Tax rate for 2024 is 6.0% of the first taxable wage up to $7000 of an employee. However, once the taxable wage limit is crossed for a particular employee, then the employer no longer has to pay this tax.
What to reduce FUTA Tax?
Yes! Then you must pay State Unemployment Insurance (SUI) tax in full and on time and get a FUTA tax credit of up to 5.4%. Which means, you saved a whopping 90% from FUTA Tax.
Although, employers are not required to withhold any amount as a post-tax deduction, unless if an employee voluntarily asks to do so. However, there are some deductions ordered by the court like child support or wage garnishment, which the employer is entitled to deduct.
As we have calculated Federal Payroll taxes, now it's time to calculate Louisiana State Payroll Taxes. The State requires the employer to pay some taxes himself and rest to withhold from the employee's paycheck. Following are the State payroll taxes that usually most of the employers and employees pay:
The state requires the employer to withhold the Louisiana State income tax from the employee's paycheck, according to the details provided by the employee on Form L-4, which contain all the necessary details of the employee such as filing status, a number of allowances to claim, number of jobs, etc. This form is filled by the employee at the starting of the job. The employee must ensure that the form is updated regularly when any significant event occurs like marriage, divorce or child's birth.
The Louisiana state income tax is divided into 3 tax brackets, ranging from 2% to 6%, depending on income level and filing status. Moreover, the state doesn't provide any Income-tax rate on Supplemental Wages and bonuses. Therefore, they must also be charged at the same rate as regular wages.
louisiana Taxable Income | Rate |
---|---|
$0 - $12,500 | 2.00% |
$12,500 - $50,000 | 4.00% |
$50,000+ | 6.00% |
louisiana Taxable Income | Rate |
---|---|
$0 - $25,000 | 2.00% |
$25,000 - $100,000 | 4.00% |
$100,000+ | 6.00% |
|
|
---|---|
louisiana Taxable Income | Rate |
$0 - $12,500 | 2.00% |
$12,500 - $50,000 | 4.00% |
$50,000+ | 6.00% |
louisiana Taxable Income | Rate |
---|---|
$0 - $12,500 | 2.00% |
$12,500 - $50,000 | 4.00% |
$50,000+ | 6.00% |
Note: Employees are suggested to study and deduce the optimal number of Allowances to claim from Louisiana State tax, as these allowances can significantly affect your take-home pay. Remember choosing more than requires a number of allowances may lead to underpayment of taxes that may lead to a penalty. On the other hand, choosing less than the required number of allowances will cause your paycheck amount to reduce, as you will be lending tax-free money to the state for a whole year.
Besides, State income tax, Louisiana State also entitles the employers to pay State Unemployment Insurance (SUI) Tax at the rate range from 0.10% to 6.20% on the first $7,700 earned by each of their employees. However, New Employers are given relief to pay at lower rates ranging from 1.21% to 3.02% on wages earned by each employee.
No city or county in Louisiana charges any local income tax.
Once you are done with all elements (steps) discussed earlier, you will have a net pay amount for each employee. Now all you have to do is pay employees on time. Also, to file all Federal Taxes, State Taxes, FICA, and FUTA taxes on time, to avoid any penalties.
We are always looking for ways to dodge taxes and increase your paycheck amount. However, doing it with illegal may land you in huge trouble. However, there is a piece of good news! There are many legal ways to reduce payroll taxes, some of which are as follow:
Besides the ways to cut payroll taxes to increase paycheck amount, there are several other ways you can increase your take-home pay, some of them are as follow:
Answer: Following are the taxes taken out of paycheck in Louisiana:
Answer: Louisiana State tax is charged at the rate following rates, depending on filing status and income level:
For "Single" and "Married Filing Separately":
For "Married Filing Jointly":
Answer: The average salary in Louisiana ranges from approx. $28,779 / year to $213,882 / year, depending on Job
Answer: The Livable wage in Louisiana state for a single adult is $11.28, for a couple (one working) with 2 children is $24.94 and for a couple (both working) with no child is $9.29.
Answer: Louisiana State doesn't have a state minimum wage, therefore, residents are required to follow the federal minimum wage law, having rates of $7.25 for non-exempted employees.