Clear Money Guide
What this state guide covers
A quick view of the questions, practical details and source notes below.
Updated August 12, 2026. Quick answer: Partly, and only from age 65. Louisiana taxes a conversion at its flat 3% rate with no offset at all for a converter under 65. From 65 the annual retirement income exemption — $12,000 per person for 2025, indexed for 2026 — can be applied, because the Department of Revenue’s regulation counts IRA distributions as exempt-eligible. Neither the statute nor LDR guidance addresses conversions specifically, so we flag that rather than state it flatly.
Confidence note: high on the rate and on the age-65 exemption itself; lower on whether it is applied to conversion income, because neither the statute nor the department’s guidance names conversions.
Why a conversion is a different question from a withdrawal
Almost every state summary answers “how does Louisiana tax retirement income?” That is a question about distributions. A Roth conversion is not a distribution in the ordinary sense — it is a voluntary election to recognise income now in exchange for tax-free growth later. Whether a state’s retirement exclusion reaches that election is a separate question, and it is the one that decides your bill.
The age gate here is hard. Under 65 there is no Louisiana shelter for this at all, and the flat 3% applies to the whole converted amount. From 65 the exemption is a capped number rather than a yes — $12,000 per person, shared with your other private pension and IRA income.
If the amount is large enough to matter, this is a one-question call to a Louisiana preparer, and the question is narrow: whether the annual retirement income exemption is applied to conversion income in practice.
What Louisiana does with the converted amount
State income tax: flat 3% (Act 11, 2024 Third Extraordinary Session, effective TY2025)
How Louisiana treats IRA and plan income: Federal, Louisiana state/local government, and Louisiana public retirement system pensions fully exempt. Other retirement income (private pensions, 401(k), IRA): persons 65+ may exclude up to $12,000 per person per year (raised from $6,000 effective TY2025, CPI-indexed going forward); remainder taxed at 3%.
Under 65 there is no Louisiana offset at all.
A conversion is taxed at the flat 3% with nothing to set against it before 65. From 65 the annual retirement income exemption of $12,000 per person can be applied, though neither the statute nor the Department’s guidance addresses conversions by name. Waiting for a birthday is a real strategy here, and it deserves to be priced rather than assumed.
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What to ask a preparer about Louisiana
Will I be 65 in the conversion year, and does LDR apply the annual retirement income exemption to conversion income in practice?
Converting around a move
Converting in the year you move into Louisiana is the case that catches people. Residency at the moment of conversion is what generally determines which state gets to tax it, so a conversion executed a week before a move and one executed a week after can produce different bills.
Four separate taxes change when you move, not one: income tax on withdrawals, treatment of Social Security, estate tax, and inheritance tax. A state that looks good on conversions can be worse on the other three.
The state bill is the smaller half
Whatever Louisiana does, the conversion is federal ordinary income first. The federal bracket you land in, and whether the conversion pushes you over an IRMAA threshold two years later, will usually move more money than the state line does. The state answer tells you whether to convert here; the federal answer tells you how much to convert at once.
Paying the tax from outside the account matters more than either. Using converted dollars to pay the bill shrinks the balance that was the entire point of converting.
Sources
Authority: La. R.S. 47:44.1 (annual retirement income exemption); La. R.S. 47:44.2; LAC 61:I.1311; LDR FAQ: excludable retirement system benefits.
Compiled from state statutes, session laws and revenue-department publications and adversarially verified in July 2026. Dataset confidence for Louisiana: high.
This page states what the cited authority says. It is not tax advice, and a conversion large enough to matter is worth putting in front of a preparer who can see your whole return.
Nearby states
An exemption that only arrives at an age makes converting before or after a birthday a real difference in dollars. Run it both ways in the Roth conversion state tax calculator — once with the exemption available to you and once with it set to zero — and the gap between the two results is what the timing is worth.