New Orleans, LA Local Taxes & Fees: Parking Tax (2026)
Key Facts
- Tax rate
- 3% of price paid to park/store/berth
- Minimum tax
- $0.01 per occasion, even if free
- Who collects
- Lot or dock owner/manager
- Remit to
- Department of Finance
- Key exemptions
- Churches, schools, charities, free employee parking
- Permit
- Free operator permit required, Sec. 150-1197
Summary
New Orleans taxes the right to park, store, or berth a vehicle or watercraft on someone else's property at three percent of the price paid, under Sec. 150-1191. The owner or manager of the lot collects the tax and remits it to the Department of Finance; a minimum of one cent applies to every parking transaction.
A tax is hereby levied on the acquisition of the right or privilege of using immovable property for the purpose of parking or storage or berthing motor vehicles and watercraft. The tax shall be three percent of the value of the right to use the immovable property for each particular purpose, time, duration, and place, which value shall be determined by the price actually paid by the user or on his behalf, if such a price is paid, or as provided in section 150-1193, if not paid or to be paid. The tax imposed by this chapter, however, shall never be less than $0.01 for each occasion or period of use of a right to park, store, or berth.
Official source re-checked September 7, 2026: no newer edition of the code had been published (publisher’s edition: Code of Ordinances: Supplement 116 Update 1).
Full Breakdown
Sec. 01 per occasion even for very low-priced parking. The tax reaches shared or contingent parking rights and applies even where availability isn't guaranteed. Sec. 150-1192 places the collection duty on the lot's owner or manager, who must collect the tax from the person paying for the space and remit it: the tax cannot be assumed by the property owner instead of the customer. Sec. 150-1193 extends an equivalent tax to gratuitous or free parking granted under circumstances where others are charged, calculated off the lowest price charged to paying customers for similar space, though it exempts reduced-rate, early-bird, and validated parking from that gratuitous-parking rule.
Sec. 150-1194 exempts parking tied to churches, charitable benefits, schools and universities (students, faculty, and school-owned vehicles), qualifying 501(c)(3) cultural events, free employee parking at the workplace, public park-and-ride facilities, and any lot open to the public or a business's customers without charge. Sec. 150-1195 excludes campground and travel-park vehicle storage from the tax entirely. Sec. 150-1197 requires every parking-lot operator to hold a free, continuous city permit from the Department of Finance, revocable only for failing to collect and remit the tax or after a court conviction under the article.
Violations & Fines
Sec. 150-1198 makes it a misdemeanor to 'collect anything of value or advertise... in the guise of a parking tax a sum in excess of the parking tax due.' Sec. 150-1197 permits are revocable for failing to collect and remit the tax on time or after a civil judgment for violating the article. Sec. 150-1201 authorizes the Department of Finance or Department of Law to seek a court injunction shutting down a delinquent operator's parking business until back taxes, penalties, interest, attorney's fees, and costs are paid, with violation of that injunction punishable as contempt of court.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is New Orleans' parking tax rate?
Is free employee or validated parking taxed?
Do churches and schools pay the parking tax?
What happens if an operator overcharges the parking tax?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in New Orleans
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