Incentives
Louisiana offers a number of incentives that can be afforded to you in locating your business to St. Martin Parish. In fact, Louisiana was rated a Top Ten State in 2020 for business incentive programs by Area Development magazine. These incentives can be customized to create robust packages that apply to any industry, from information technology to advanced manufacturing and agribusiness.
SMEDA prides itself on helping you and your business find and enroll in the perfect programs to match your business.
The Louisiana Economic Development (LED) is a central point for accessing these incentives and the list can be accessed here. A number of these programs require an Advanced Notification form and fee be submitted prior to any construction, renovations, purchases, hiring of employees, etc. The form can be electronically filed through LED’s FastLane. Specific incentives to highlight are:
Results
The Enterprise Zone program provides benefits to new or existing Louisiana businesses who create jobs, in the form of a one-time $3,500 tax credit or $1,000 tax credit for each net new job created. In addition, businesses may receive a rebate of state sales and use taxes paid on qualifying materials.
ITEP offers an attractive tax incentive for manufacturers who make a commitment to jobs and payroll in the state. The program provides an 80% property tax abatement on capital investment for up to 10 years.
Louisiana Economic Development’s FastStart is a workforce training and development program which has been recognized as #1 in the nation for 12 consecutive years by Business Facilities magazine.
For applications received on or after July 1, 2017, Louisiana's Motion Picture Production Program, statutorily known as Motion Picture Production Tax Credit, provides motion picture productions up to a 40% tax credit on total qualified in-state production expenditures, including resident and non-resident labor.
- Provides up to a 40% tax credit (25% base credit; 10% increase for Louisiana screenplay productions, 5% increase if outside of the New Orleans Metro Statistical Area).
- $50,000 minimum in-state expenditure requirement for Louisiana screenplay productions.
- $300,000 minimum in-state expenditure requirement on all other eligible productions.
- The maximum amount of credits that can be issued is $150 million per fiscal year.
- The maximum amount of credits that can be claimed is $180 million per fiscal year.
- Tax credits may be used to offset personal or corporate income tax liability in Louisiana.
- Tax credits may be transferred back to the State for 90% of face value (requires a 2% transfer fee which results in an 88% net).
This program provides incentives for companies to create well-paid jobs and promote economic development. Specifically, companies can receive a 6% cash rebate of annual gross payroll for new direct jobs for up to 10 years and a state sales/use tax rebate on capital expenditures.