New Orleans food and beverage tax (NOEHA): who collects and files

Many New Orleans restaurant owners know about the sales tax on a check and learn about a second tax only when a notice arrives. The New Orleans Exhibition Hall Authority food and beverage tax, usually called NOEHA, is a small percentage added to food and drink sold in Orleans Parish and at the airport. The Louisiana Department of Revenue administers it, and the rule that surprises owners most is that every food business files a return every month, even when it collects nothing. This guide, checked in November 2026, explains who collects, what the rates are, which sales count and how to file. It is general information, not legal advice. The department's NOEHA page is the authority.

Who has to file the NOEHA return?

Any food service establishment with food or beverage sales in Orleans Parish, or at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, must file a monthly return. The department says this filing requirement applies even when your business is below the sales threshold, collected no tax during the month or owes nothing for the period. A restaurant that skips a return because the answer is zero is out of compliance. Returns are filed on Form R-1325 electronically through LaTAP, the department's online system, and they are due on or before the 20th of the month after the reporting period.

Which businesses must collect the tax from guests?

A food service establishment collects the tax when its taxable food and beverage sales met the applicable threshold during the preceding calendar year. The department's rate table works by prior-year taxable sales:

• Less than $200,000: no tax is collected.
• $200,000 through $499,999: 0.5 percent.
• More than $500,000: the page prints 0.75, without a percent sign, so read it as 0.75 percent and confirm the figure in your own notice.

The department tells each business its rate for the next year by the end of the calendar year, and the notice sits in your LaTAP account. The rate does not reset when ownership changes. The tax is charged to the customer when the customer pays for the food or drink, so it is a line on the check and not a cost you absorb.

What counts as a food service establishment?

The department's definition is wide. It covers restaurants, fast food, cafes and coffee shops, cafeterias, bars, taverns and nightclubs, caterers and commissaries, food trucks, delis, bakeries selling ready-to-eat items, roadside stands, theater and bowling alley snack bars, airport vendors, and organizations that routinely serve food. A business can qualify even when it sells manufactured snacks and drinks that it did not prepare, if it provides facilities where customers consume them.

Which sales are taxable?

The tax generally applies to prepared or manufactured food and beverages sold or served in Orleans Parish or at the airport. The department lists restaurant meals, fast food, prepared deli food, ready-to-eat bakery products, fountain drinks, coffee, soft drinks, alcoholic beverages, catered meals, buffets and entertainment venue concessions, and it includes food sold for eating on the premises and for taking away.

Where the food was prepared does not decide the question. The place of sale or service does. The department's example: a caterer that cooks in Jefferson Parish and serves an event in Orleans Parish owes the tax on the Orleans sale, if it meets the collection threshold, while a business that cooks in Orleans Parish but sells only outside the parish and the airport does not collect the tax on those sales.

What sales are generally not taxable?

The department lists food and beverages meant for preparation and eating at home, sales made entirely outside Orleans Parish and the airport, purchases paid for with SNAP or eWIC benefits, certain meals furnished by educational, religious or medical institutions to residents or staff when the facility is closed to the public, and other transactions Louisiana law exempts. Keep a written note of why any sale was left out of the taxable total, so the file makes sense when you need it a year later.

How do you set up the return so it never lapses?

Put the 20th on your calendar as a firm deadline, and file even in your slowest month. Match the figures on your NOEHA return to your point-of-sale report for the same month, because both come from the same sales. If you sell at more than one site, keep sales by location so you can show which ones fall in Orleans Parish and which do not. If you buy an existing restaurant, check your LaTAP account at once for the rate notice, because the rate stays with the business.

What should you do next?

Log in to LaTAP, find your NOEHA account and read your rate notice. Then compare last year's taxable food and beverage sales with the bands above, so you know whether you collect this year. Share the answer with whoever sets up your register. Our guide on Louisiana sales tax on restaurant meals explains the state and parish layers that sit beside this tax.

More guides for your business:

• Louisiana sales tax on restaurant meals: state, parish and New Orleans
• How to register and file Louisiana sales tax with LaTAP
• New Orleans food truck permit rules

More in the US guides for food businesses.