Key takeaways
- Vermont sales tax is 6%, and a town can add a 1% local option tax on top of it.
- A client that collects local option tax, has more than one location or remitted over $100,000 last year must file in myVTax.
- Filing frequency is assigned by the Department. The published rule of thumb is monthly above $500 of prior-year liability and quarterly at $500 or less.
- Due dates are the 25th, pushed to the next business day when the 25th is a weekend or holiday, so December 28, 2026 is the date for November sales.
- Collect sales by town, not just in total, because local option tax is reported town by town.
Where and how Vermont sales tax is filed
Returns and payments go through myVTax, the Department of Taxes' free online portal. The paper alternative is Form SUT-451, Sales and Use Tax Return, and the Department allows it only for a client with a single location, no local option tax sales and no ability to file through myVTax.
Three conditions make electronic filing mandatory: more than one location, more than $100,000 of sales and use tax remitted in the prior calendar year, or any sales subject to local option tax. A client who sells in a local option town is therefore a myVTax filer even if the tax due for the period is zero, so set up the client's myVTax access before the first deadline, not on the 24th.
A new client needs a business tax account first. The Department's registration form is Form BR-400, Application for Business Tax Account. Ask for the account number and confirm that your firm is attached to the account through a power of attorney, because the Department lists Form PA-1 as its special power of attorney.
How filing frequency is assigned
The Department sets each taxpayer's frequency as monthly, quarterly or annual, and assigns it at registration. You do not choose it. The Department's FAQ gives the basis: prior calendar year sales and use tax liability above $500 means monthly, and $500 or less means quarterly.
Worked example: a client in its first year with liability just under $500 is quarterly. If the next year's liability crosses $500, expect the Department to move the account to monthly, and the first sign is a myVTax period list that changes. Check the account's filing periods in January, not after a missed month.
Do not assume the client's old frequency carries forward, and do not change it yourself. Ask the Department if the periods in myVTax do not match what the client was told.
2026 due dates and the weekend rule
Monthly returns are due on the 25th of the following month. The FAQ describes February as the 23rd, and the Department's 2026 table shows February 23, 2026 for January sales. Quarterly returns are due on the 25th of January, April, July and October. When a due date lands on a weekend or holiday, it moves to the next business day.
The 2026 table shows how often that happens. December 2025 sales were due January 26, 2026, and the first quarter was due April 27, 2026. The second quarter was due July 27, 2026, and the third quarter was due October 26, 2026. All four quarterly dates sit a day or two after the 25th.
What is still ahead this year: October 2026 sales are due November 25, 2026 and November 2026 sales are due December 28, 2026. The year-end period is due January 25, 2027 for monthly, quarterly and annual filers, according to the Department's table. Put these dates in the client calendar from the table, not from the rule of 25, because the shifted dates are the ones people miss.
Local option tax: where the money goes and how to report it
Local option tax is a 1% tax that a town may add to sales, to meals and alcohol, or to rooms. Sales are taxed at 6% plus 1% where it applies. Meals and rooms are 9% plus 1%, and alcohol served on premises is 10% plus 1%. The Department does not collect it on motor vehicle sales and rentals.
The 1% is taken on the same taxable receipts, not on the tax. Worked example: a client has $40,000 of taxable sales delivered or sold in a local option town. State tax is $2,400 and local option tax is $400, for $2,800. The common error is computing 1% of the 6%, which gives $24.
Sourcing follows where the buyer takes possession. A client inside a local option town collects it on counter sales and on deliveries into other local option towns at the destination town's rate. A client outside any local option town still collects it on taxable deliveries into one. Delivery fees, package charges and credit card fees are part of the price before tax is calculated.
In myVTax the filer enters the business information, adds Local Option Taxes, selects each town and enters the amount collected for each. The Department warns that town boundaries do not always match USPS town names or ZIP codes, so use the Department's local option tax finder rather than the shipping address city.
What a late or wrong return costs
The Department's penalty page lists 5% per month for failure to pay for all other tax types, and the same page lists 5% for each month a return is not filed. Sales tax is not named on that page, so read it as the catch-all category and confirm against any notice the client receives. The maximum civil penalty is 25% of the unpaid tax.
A separate $50 penalty applies to a return filed more than 60 days after the original due date even when no tax is owed, unless an extension was filed. For a client with a zero return, that is the reason not to skip the period. Fraud carries a penalty of 100% of the unpaid tax.
Interest runs on top of penalties. The Department's rate for underpayments is 7.75% for 2026, down from 8.5% for 2025. A late payment that crosses New Year into 2027 will be charged at the 2027 rate for the days after December 31, so check the Department's interest rate page for that rate. To fix an error, use the Amending Returns button in myVTax. On paper, mark the return Amended at the top.
Records to collect from the client each period
Ask for a sales report that breaks taxable and nonsale receipts apart and, for any client with local option tax, shows taxable sales by town. A report that only shows total sales forces a guess at the town split, and a guess is what generates the notice.
Request wording that works: "Please send your point-of-sale or Shopify sales report for October 1 to October 31, 2026, split by delivery town, plus a list of any sales where the customer gave you an exemption certificate." Then add: "Also send any invoices from out-of-state sellers who did not charge you Vermont tax, with the item and the amount." The second request feeds the use tax line.
Untaxed internet purchases the client made for its own use are reported on Line 4b of Form SUT-451, and the myVTax return carries the same use tax figure. Decision rule: if the client bought equipment or supplies from an out-of-state seller with no Vermont tax on the invoice, ask for the invoice.
For exempt sales, collect the certificate at the time of sale. The Department lists Form S-3 for resale, exempt organizations and direct pay permits, and the seller keeps the certificate for three years. A resale sale with no certificate on file is a taxable sale at audit.
Reconcile before filing: taxable sales by town times the rate, compared to the sales tax payable account. Anything that does not tie goes back to the client with the specific transaction.
Running the monthly request
Treat the return as a recurring request with its own internal deadline, a few business days before the state date, well ahead of the October return due November 25, 2026. In Usual, a recurring request can be set up per client with a due date and reminders, so the sales report by town and the exemption certificates arrive in one place each period. It does not file the return; that still happens in myVTax or on Form SUT-451.