New Louisiana law aims to get taxes owed by online shoppers

BATON ROUGE, La.- Online shoppers get ready. Louisiana is beefing up its efforts to collect taxes on purchases made from out-of-state Internet retailers.

Residents who bought products last year from online companies and didn't pay state sales taxes will begin receiving notifications this month from the retailers, telling them they owe taxes to the state.

The Department of Revenue says this is the first year notice letters, to be mailed by Jan. 31, will be sent to shoppers. But they'll be an annual occurrence under 2016 legislation.

Louisiana taxpayers are supposed to report online purchases for which state sales tax wasn't charged on their income tax returns and pay taxes on them.

Under the new law, retailers also must send annual reports to the revenue department, which can cross-check the information with tax returns.