Louisiana imposes various requirements on sellers doing business in the state. We recommend that you go through the items below to help you with the most frequently asked questions concerning sellers and sales and use tax issues.

Procedure for accepting resale certificates. Although wholesale sales are exempt from tax, wholesalers are required to collect advance sales taxes from dealers (you, the retailer) to facilitate collection of the tax at the retail level. Wholesalers include manufacturers, jobbers, and suppliers selling to anyone for sale at retail. Basically, if you are a seller that will be selling the majority of your goods at retail, you will have to pay your wholesaler the sales tax. As a retail dealer who has made advance payments of sales tax to wholesalers you can then deduct the payments from the total tax collected by them when the items are sold at retail.

Procedure for accepting blanket certificates. A blanket resale certificate is a resale certificate provided to you by those customers who make numerous exempt resale purchases from you. The idea is that by maintaining a blanket resale certificate, both you and your customer can avoid the hassle of having to present a certificate every time your customer makes a purchase. In Louisiana only wholesale sales are exempt from tax, wholesalers are required to collect advance sales taxes from retailers (your customers, unless they are also wholesalers) to facilitate collection of the tax at the retail level. Wholesalers include manufacturers, jobbers, and suppliers selling to anyone for sale at retail. Louisiana has many specific exemption certificates that may be obtained from the Department of Revenue and Taxation, Taxpayer Assistance Section.

Sales and use tax liability for out-of-state mail order and catalogue retailers. Louisiana has a statute that specifically taxes out-of-state mail order and catalogue sellers. However, you will be responsible for paying this tax only if you have physical presence within Louisiana. To determine if you have physical presence, ask yourself the following:

• Do I have retail facilities, a warehouse, or any office space in Louisiana? Maintaining retail or warehouse facilities will give you physical presence. Also, having an office for employees, even for business activities unrelated to mail order sales, will give you physical presence.
• Do my employees or I enter Louisiana for purposes of taking and transmitting orders from Louisiana? If your employee or independent contractor goes into Louisiana to take or transmit orders, your business may have physical presence in Louisiana. However, contracting with a common carrier to deliver mail order goods does not constitute physical presence.
• Do my delivery vehicles frequently enter Louisiana for purposes of delivering property? Frequent deliveries in Louisiana by your trucks will give you physical presence in Louisiana.

Sales tax "bracket system." The following bracket system may be followed by sellers in computing the sales tax at the 4 percent tax rate. The tax is computed on each dollar and/or fraction of a dollar according to the following table:

Absorbing the tax — using a "no sales tax" advertising strategy to drum up business. In Louisiana it is against the law to refund or offer to refund all or any part of the amount collected, or to absorb the amount of sales tax required to be added to the sales price and collected from the purchaser. As a seller, it is also against the law for you to advertise directly or indirectly that you will absorb the sales tax that is required to be added to the sales price.

Claiming refund for excess tax payments. When merchandise is returned to the dealer (retailer) or a service charge is refunded to a customer on which tax has already been remitted, the dealer applies for a refund by filing an amended return within three years. The refund form is obtained from the Department of Revenue and Taxation. If the tax has not yet been remitted and a refund is made to the customer, the dealer may deduct the tax in his or her current return.