Vermont cash rounding law

Vermont authorizes, but does not require, a person engaged in a cash transaction to round the final amount due, after taxes and fees, to the nearest five cents: final digits 1, 2, 6 and 7 round down and 3, 4, 8 and 9 round up. A person that rounds must post the model notice prepared by the Commissioner of Liquor and Lottery at the point of sale or entrance, and any cash refund must be issued in the exact amount initially paid. Wages, rebates and cash disbursements, and transactions governed by federal law that prohibits rounding are excluded.

Tax base is pre-rounded. All taxes and fees are calculated and remitted based on the prerounding amount.

The act defines a cash transaction as a sale paid entirely or partially in cash and excludes electronic and other noncash payments, but it does not prescribe how the cash portion of a split-tender transaction is sequenced or rounded. That detail is not addressed by the enacted text.

Express statutory safe harbor. Rounding under the act does not constitute an unlawful price increase, a surcharge, an unfair or deceptive act or practice in commerce, or discrimination, notwithstanding any law to the contrary. Failure to post the required notice may draw a penalty from the Secretary of Agriculture, Food and Markets under 6 V.S.A. 687.