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Forming an LLC for Your Louisiana Hair Salon: The Complete Filing Guide

The parent guide gives you the short version: file form 365 through geauxBIZ, pay $125, file a $35 annual report on your anniversary date. This page is the long version. It walks through choosing between an LLC, a sole proprietorship and a corporation in Louisiana terms, what each Secretary of State filing actually does at the prices Act 921 of 2026 set, the parish courthouse filing that Louisiana substitutes for a state DBA, and the revocation clock that starts the day you skip an annual report.

Researched from Louisiana state sources. Our guides are free. We may earn a commission when you use a partner service, at no additional cost to you.

LLC, sole proprietorship, or corporation for a Louisiana salon

The parent guide gives the short version of this choice. Here is the long one. A sole proprietorship is what you are by default if you open a salon in your own name and file nothing with the Secretary of State: there is no formation step, and legally there is no business separate from you, which means the salon's debts, lease obligations, and legal claims reach your personal assets. A sole proprietor trading under a salon name still makes the parish assumed name filing covered below, and that filing creates no shield at all.

A limited liability company creates a separate legal entity between you and the salon. Formed properly and kept separate, it holds the business's debts and claims at the business level instead of following you home. Two limits deserve plain words. The shield covers the business's obligations; it does not protect you from claims about your own work behind the chair, and it weakens if you run the salon's money through your personal accounts, which is why the bank account section below matters. An LLC is also taxed flexibly: by default its income passes through to the owners, and the entity can elect corporate taxation at the federal level if that ever fits better. That election is a federal tax choice, not a different Louisiana entity.

A corporation is the third route: a separate entity formed with the Secretary of State, owned through stock, and run with more formal machinery, directors, officers, and records, than most single salon operations need. It earns its keep for multi location groups and outside investors. For a first salon, the LLC is the structure Louisiana owners usually land on, and it is the one the rest of this page walks through. Whichever you choose, remember that the entity is separate from licensing: your salon's certificate of registration and your stylists' practitioner certificates are still required, exactly as the Louisiana hub lays out.

Filing the Articles of Organization: form 365

You form a Louisiana LLC by filing Articles of Organization, form 365, with the Secretary of State, in practice through geauxBIZ, the state's business portal. The filing fee is $125. Louisiana raised the Commercial Division's fees under Act 921 of 2026 effective October 1, 2026, moving the articles from $100 to $125, so any formation guide printed earlier in 2026 quotes a price that expired in the fall. Work through the pieces in order:

1. Choose the legal name. It must include an LLC designator such as "Limited Liability Company" or "LLC", and it must be distinguishable from names already on file with the state. If the name you want is not ready to file yet, an optional name reservation holds it for 120 days for $25.
2. Name a registered agent. Your LLC needs a registered agent with a Louisiana address where legal papers can be delivered. Pick someone who will actually be there and who has agreed to serve, because a missed lawsuit notice is the worst way to learn the agent moved. Changing the agent or office later costs $30 on form 983.
3. File form 365 with the Initial Report and pay the $125 fee. Louisiana files the articles together with the Initial Report the state requires at formation. Filing creates the entity; it does not license the salon, and it does not finish your tax setup.
4. Keep the filing confirmation. Your bank, your landlord, and your payment processor will all ask for proof the LLC exists. Save the confirmation with your lease and certificates.

Two Louisiana features frame the filing. Louisiana has no general state business license, so there is no extra state level license to buy beyond the Board of Cosmetology certificates. And unlike Texas, Louisiana LLCs do file an annual report with the Secretary of State, a $35 recurring obligation covered in the calendar below, with real teeth behind it.

Closing the entity later runs through the same office at the same price family: an Affidavit to Dissolve, form 368, costs $125, and dissolutions generally sit at $125 on the current schedule. Dissolution is a deliberate filing you make when the business is done. The next section of the calendar covers the involuntary version, revocation, which arrives on its own if the annual reports stop.

The assumed name: parish filing and state registry

Louisiana splits the name question in two, and the half most owners miss is the parish half. RS 51:281 provides that no person shall transact business under an assumed name, or any designation other than the real name of the individual conducting the business, unless that person files a certificate with the clerk of court of the parish or parishes where the business is conducted, or with the register of conveyances in New Orleans. The certificate states the name the business will use, the real full name of the person owning and conducting it, and that person's post office address, and it is executed and acknowledged before a notary public. The filing has teeth: no sheriff and ex officio tax collector, and no other official who issues license receipts, may issue one to an assumed name business without a certificate from the clerk showing the filing is on record. Because forms and fees are set parish by parish, this guide prints no parish fee; the clerk of court in your parish quotes it.

The state level filing is a different instrument with a different job. The Secretary of State's Commercial Division registers trade names on form 309 for $95, the price since October 1, 2026 under Act 921, and the registration runs ten years. Entities file their legal names with the Secretary of State at formation, so for an LLC the trade name registration is an optional statewide record of the name on the door, useful against a copycat in another parish, and not a substitute for the parish certificate where RS 51:281 requires one. Read the two filings for what they are: the parish certificate is the compliance filing that unlocks local licensing, and the state registration is a brand record. Neither is a license, and neither creates your entity, but a mismatch between your assumed name certificate, your lease, and your bank records is a small thing that stalls bigger things, including the loans on our Louisiana business loans page.

Your EIN from the IRS

Your EIN is the business's federal tax ID, issued by the IRS. Louisiana keys its registrations to the federal number: the Department of Revenue opens your sales tax and withholding accounts against it, the Workforce Commission builds your unemployment account on it, and your bank will ask for it alongside the articles of organization and, where the name differs, the parish assumed name certificate. It is free. Apply directly through the IRS and ignore any website that offers to obtain one for a fee; those sites charge for a form the government gives away. Apply early, right after the LLC is formed, so the EIN never becomes the bottleneck when you sign a lease or set up payroll.

Louisiana tax accounts: sales tax, withholding, and unemployment

Three accounts follow formation. The first is the sales tax account with the Department of Revenue, administered through LaTAP. The Louisiana rule that matters at your register: beauty services are not taxable, because RS 47:301(14) enumerates the services Louisiana taxes and personal and professional beauty services are not on the list, while retail product sales are taxable. Take home shampoo, styling products, and similar items are charged at the 5 percent state rate, the rate Act 11 of the 2024 Third Extraordinary Session set effective January 1, 2025, plus the parish and municipal taxes at your address, which Louisiana administers separately through local authorities on their own registrations. Itemize services and products separately on every ticket so tax is collected only on the products.

The second account is employer withholding with the Department of Revenue, which opens the day you plan to run payroll. The third is the unemployment insurance account with the Louisiana Workforce Commission, which now brands itself Louisiana Works. Louisiana's unemployment tax applies to the first $7,000 of each employee's wages, the wage base the Commission publishes for 2026. A new employer who has not yet served the eligibility period pays the average rate for employers in its industrial classification under RS 23:1553, rather than a single statewide starter rate, and experienced employer rates run from 0.09 percent to 6.20 percent on the Commission's published schedule. Quarterly wage reports go in on Form LDOL-ES4, and new hires are reported to the Commission. Louisiana sets no state minimum wage of its own, so the federal $7.25 floor carries the wage and hour file.

The business bank account, and keeping the separation real

Open a business bank account in the LLC's name as soon as the EIN arrives, using your formation confirmation, your EIN letter, and your parish assumed name certificate if you filed one. Then run everything through it: card settlements, booth rent, payroll, product purchases, rent. The liability separation you paid $125 for is only as strong as the separation you actually keep. Money that flows back and forth between the salon and your personal account blurs the line the LLC exists to draw, and it makes your bookkeeping, your sales tax returns, and any future loan application harder than they need to be. Pair the account with the insurance decision in our Louisiana salon insurance guide, and your salon's legal and financial structure is genuinely in place rather than filed and forgotten.

Your Louisiana LLC annual duties calendar

• On or before your anniversary date, every year: the LLC annual report to the Secretary of State under RS 12:1308.1, filed through geauxBIZ, $35 since October 1, 2026. Louisiana ties this deadline to your own formation date, so it shares the year with no statewide filing day and nobody else will remind you on the right date.
• The revocation clock: under RS 12:1308.2, the Secretary of State revokes the articles of an LLC that fails to file its annual report for three consecutive years. Reinstatement is available within three years of the revocation, with an application signed by a member or manager, the current annual report, and the reinstatement fee, $125 on the current schedule. Reinstatement is retroactive, as though the revocation had not occurred, and the revoked LLC's name stays unavailable to other entities for the same three years.
• January 31, every year: salon certificate renewal with the Board of Cosmetology, $55, expiring March 1 if unrenewed. Practitioner certificates renew separately, on each holder's birth date, at $35.
• Quarterly: unemployment wage reports to the Workforce Commission on Form LDOL-ES4, and sales tax returns on the Department of Revenue's schedule for retail product sales.
• Every ten years, if taken: trade name registration renewal with the Secretary of State, $95 on form 309.
• As things change: keep your registered agent and address current with the Secretary of State (a change of agent or office costs $30 on form 983), and your parish assumed name certificate, lease, and bank account matched to the name on your storefront.

That calendar is the whole recurring burden of a Louisiana salon LLC at the state level. The expensive mistakes are not the fees, which are small. They are the anniversary date that passes unmarked three years running until the articles are revoked, and the personal card swiped for salon expenses until the entity and the owner are the same pile of money again.

This page is general information researched from official Louisiana and federal sources, not legal, tax, or insurance advice. Requirements, fees and forms change; verify the current rules with the agency or regulator linked above before you file, sign or spend.

Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to form an LLC in Louisiana?

The state filing fee for the Articles of Organization, form 365, is $125, paid to the Louisiana Secretary of State through geauxBIZ, and the articles are filed together with the Initial Report the state requires at formation. Act 921 of 2026 raised the fee from $100 effective October 1, 2026, so formation guides printed earlier in 2026 quote a price that has expired. An optional name reservation holds your salon's name for 120 days for $25.

When is a Louisiana LLC annual report due, and what does it cost?

Under RS 12:1308.1 the annual report is due on or before the anniversary date of the LLC's organization, each year, filed through geauxBIZ. The fee is $35 since October 1, 2026, up from $30 under the same Act 921 schedule. Louisiana ties the deadline to your own formation date rather than a single statewide date, so the anniversary goes on your salon's compliance calendar the day the articles are accepted.

What happens if a Louisiana LLC stops filing its annual report?

Under RS 12:1308.2, the Secretary of State revokes the articles of organization of an LLC that fails to file an annual report for three consecutive years. The LLC can be reinstated within three years of the revocation by filing an application for reinstatement signed by a member or manager, the current annual report, and the reinstatement fee, $125 on the current fee schedule. Reinstatement is retroactive, and the revoked LLC's name stays unavailable to other entities for three years.

Where do I file a DBA for a salon in Louisiana?

At the parish courthouse, not the Secretary of State. Under RS 51:281, a person transacting business under an assumed name files a notarized certificate with the clerk of court of the parish where the business operates, or the register of conveyances in New Orleans, and no tax collector may issue a license receipt until that filing is on record. A separate, optional filing registers a trade name with the Secretary of State on form 309 for $95, good for ten years, as a statewide brand record.

Do I need an EIN for a single member salon LLC in Louisiana?

In practice, yes. Louisiana keys its registrations to the federal number: the Department of Revenue opens your sales tax and withholding accounts against it, the Workforce Commission builds your unemployment account on it, and your bank will ask for it alongside the articles of organization. It is free from the IRS, so there is no reason to wait, and no reason to pay a website that offers to get one for you.