California cash rounding law
AB 1793. Enacted Sep 30, 2026; applies Jul 1, 2027. Obligation: Obligates. Scope: Merchant cash transactions at physical locations.
Verified against enacted text: October 1, 2026. Primary source.
Federal baseline
H.R. 10167 has passed congress. It is not yet law, and it does not by itself change California's enacted requirements below. Section 4 of the bill is a safe harbor for adherence to the federal rounding conduct it describes, not a blanket preemption of state law. See the Federal Cash-Rounding Standard for the pending federal framework and its current status.
Review status
Status: Monitoring. Verified against enacted text: October 1, 2026.
No specific guidance identified beyond what is cited on this page as of September 29, 2026. Monitoring for updates.
What a merchant must do
California AB 1793 obligates merchants at physical locations in California to round the legal-tender portion of a sale to the nearest five cents beginning July 1, 2027. Totals of two cents or less and transactions paid wholly by a noncash method are excluded. Cash refunds are rounded using the same method.
Tax base treatment
The rounding adjustment is disregarded when calculating any tax, fee, or surcharge. The legal-tender portion is rounded after those amounts are calculated.
Mixed tender treatment
Only the portion paid with legal tender is rounded. The amount paid by card or another noncash method remains unchanged.
Liability protection
No express liability protection is recorded in the enrolled-text provisions tracked by Centsless.
Related references
- Cash rounding compliance: the category definition and its four failure points
- Legislation tracker: live status across all enacted and pending states
- Cash rounding exposure tool: compare California against the other states you operate in
- Cash rounding laws by state: every enacted statute with citation, applicability date and obligation
- Tennessee cash rounding law: permits (safe harbor), a different obligation structure from California
- Kentucky cash rounding law: obligates govt; permits retail, a different obligation structure from California
- New Mexico cash rounding law: delegation, a different obligation structure from California