Federal standard
H.R. 10167 · 119th Congress
The Federal Cash-Rounding Standard
Both chambers of Congress have passed H.R. 10167 in the same form. It becomes law only after presidential action. It is not in force today. This page tracks H.R. 10167, the cash-rounding rule it would create, and how that rule relates to state and local obligations that may remain relevant.
Read the official bill text passed by both chambers
The official engrossed text is substantively identical to the introduced version used for this analysis. Open the Senate-referred text or download the archived introduced PDF to verify citations.
Current status
Legislative status and implementation status are tracked separately
H.R. 10167, the Common Cents Act, passed the Senate without amendment by unanimous consent on September 28, 2026, after previously passing the House. The bill has cleared Congress and awaits presentation to the President. Nothing changes legally today. Businesses can prepare: understand the proposed rule, confirm POS behavior, and plan training, communication and documentation.
- Introduced
- Passed House
- Passed Senate
- To President
- Became Law
- Legislative status
- Passed Congress
- Next step
- Presidential action
- Enactment
- Not yet enacted. No enactment date.
- Implementation status
- Not in force. No federal implementation obligation yet.
Chronology
- August 27, 2026 — Introduced in the House
- September 14, 2026 — Passed the House
- September 15, 2026 — Received in the Senate
- September 28, 2026 — Passed the Senate without amendment
- Pending — Presentation to the President and presidential action (signature, veto, or lapse into law without signature)
- Not yet scheduled — Enactment date, if the bill becomes law
- Not yet scheduled — Effective date and any agency guidance
The bill establishes a federal cash-rounding framework while preserving important implementation questions around transaction context, exact-change availability, customer-favorable rounding, wage payments, noncash exclusions, and interaction with state and local requirements.
Overview
Bill record
- Bill
- H.R. 10167
- Congress
- 119th Congress
- Sponsor
- Rep. Lisa C. McClain
- Introduced
- August 27, 2026
- Passed House
- September 14, 2026
- Received in Senate
- September 15, 2026
- Passed Senate
- September 28, 2026, without amendment
- Senate committee
- Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs (discharged by unanimous consent)
- Text analyzed
- House-passed text, passed Senate without amendment
Latest action: Senate Banking Committee discharged by unanimous consent; passed Senate without amendment by unanimous consent on September 28, 2026. The bill has passed both chambers and awaits presentation to the President. It has not become law. Official bill record · Senate-referred text
What the standard does
Permissive authority, conditioned on exact-change availability
If enacted, H.R. 10167 would create federal authority to round the cash portion of a transaction to the nearest five cents when exact change cannot be provided. It does not mandate rounding, does not apply to noncash payment methods, and does not by itself resolve every state or local requirement that may apply to the same transaction.
Ordinary cash transaction
Trigger: Exact change cannot be provided at the time of the cash transaction.
Authority: Permissive. Section 3(e) states that ordinary or customer-favorable rounding is not required.
Customer-favorable and employee payments
Business pays customer: May round up to the nearest amount divisible by five.
Customer pays business: May round down to the nearest amount divisible by five.
Employer cash payment: An employer may provide the exact cash amount. If the employer chooses to round a cash payment, the direction must be upward.
Section 3(b) is separate from ordinary symmetric rounding. The employer provision does not mandate rounding of all cash wages; it mandates upward direction only when an employer chooses to round.
The rounding table
Primary sourceFinal digit determines direction; the increment is always five cents
The table below states the statutory rounding direction by the final digit of the covered amount, in cents. Dollar figures in the examples column illustrate the rule; they are not part of the statutory text.
| Final digit (cents) | Direction | Basis | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Unchanged | Primary source | Centsless analysis$1.20 → $1.20 |
| 1 | Down | Primary source | Centsless analysis$1.21 → $1.20 |
| 2 | Down | Primary source | Centsless analysis$1.22 → $1.20 |
| 3 | Up | Primary source | Centsless analysis$1.23 → $1.25 |
| 4 | Up | Primary source | Centsless analysis$1.24 → $1.25 |
| 5 | Unchanged | Primary source | Centsless analysis$1.25 → $1.25 |
| 6 | Down | Primary source | Centsless analysis$1.26 → $1.25 |
| 7 | Down | Primary source | Centsless analysis$1.27 → $1.25 |
| 8 | Up | Primary source | Centsless analysis$1.28 → $1.30 |
| 9 | Up | Primary source | Centsless analysis$1.29 → $1.30 |
Small-transaction rule
A covered amount totaling $0.01 or $0.02 may be rounded up to $0.05. This applies only when the entire covered amount is one or two cents. A total such as $21.02 is not a two-cent transaction; only the covered amount itself, not the whole transaction total, is measured against this rule.
When rounding applies
Covered cash transactions
Section 3(f) creates two possible calculation bases. A transaction system must distinguish them.
- 01The total transaction amount, including taxes
- 02The amount of cash change due when cash tender exceeds the tax-inclusive transaction total
When rounding does not apply
Excluded payment methods
Sections 3(a), (b), and (c) do not apply to the following payment methods:
- Demand or negotiable instrument
- Electronic fund transfer
- Check
- Gift card
- Money order
- Credit card
- Other like instrument or method
Federal and state law
A safe harbor, not a blanket preemption
Section 4 provides that adherence to Section 3 shall not constitute a violation of applicable federal, state, tribal, or local requirements.
The operational interaction between this protection and existing state cash-rounding frameworks may depend on final enacted text and subsequent interpretation. The bill should not be described as automatically erasing every state framework or as having no effect on state obligations.
Federally protected rounding conduct
Section 4's safe harbor covers adherence to the rounding conduct described in Section 3: the ordinary and customer-favorable rounding methods, the small-transaction rule, and the employer cash payment rule, each applied as the statute describes them.
Other state/local obligations that may remain relevant
- Sales and use tax treatment
- Pricing disclosure requirements
- Receipt content requirements
- Consumer protection statutes
- Wage payment laws
- Accounting and reconciliation practices
- Refund and return practices
Wage-law carveout: The bill does not excuse noncompliance with minimum wage, overtime, or paid leave requirements.
Not legal advice. Centsless provides independent research and educational information about federal and state cash-rounding frameworks. This page is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Businesses should confirm how the federal standard and any applicable state or local requirements interact with counsel familiar with their specific operations and jurisdictions before changing pricing, receipt, tax, or payroll practices.
Coin production and federal implementation
Penny production
Section 2 directs Treasury to cease producing one-cent coins for general circulation. Existing pennies remain legal tender. Production status, circulation status, and legal-tender status are distinct.
Nickel composition
A zinc-inner, nickel-outer five-cent coin is permitted only after testing for reduced cost and, to the greatest extent practicable, minimal adverse impact on coin-accepting machines.
Coin distribution
Section 5 requires a Federal Reserve plan and reports on penny orders, deposits, commercial coin terminals, distribution stability, implementation challenges, and impacts on vulnerable cash users.
Future coin discontinuation
The next denomination question is already visible.
Section 6 would let Treasury discontinue another covered circulating coin only after at least 60 days' notice to the Senate Banking and House Financial Services committees, an explanation of fiscal and operational reasoning, a comprehensive phaseout plan addressing consumer, business, and economic impacts, and a committee briefing within 30 days after notice.
The bill creates a process for future coin discontinuation, but it does not contain an automatic mechanism for changing the five-cent rounding increment if the denomination set changes again. It neither expressly authorizes dime rounding nor resolves every future source of authority.
Encode the governing rule, not the coin.
Read The Nickel-to-Dime ProblemWhat this means operationally
The arithmetic is only one layer.
If enacted, H.R. 10167 would establish federal authority for five-cent cash rounding under specified conditions, but implementation would still depend on transaction conditions, tender, covered amount, effective authority, and the interaction between federal and state frameworks.
01
What is the rule?
Jurisdiction, authority, effective date, and rule version.
02
Does it apply here?
Tender, transaction type, covered amount, timing, and operational trigger.
03
Can we prove what happened?
Rule applied, authority, adjustment, settlement, and decision context.
Related research
The Nickel-to-Dime Problem
Why fixed-denomination rules can require another conformance cycle if the denomination changes again.
The Machine Test
What changing nickel composition could mean for coin-acceptance infrastructure.
Register and drawer reconciliation
How authorized cash-rounding differences enter register journals, drawer counts, and treasury controls.
Related Common Cents Act bills
H.R. 3074
Passed HouseReceived in the Senate and referred to Senate Banking on 2026-07-15.
Official recordCongress.gov identifies S. 1525 as an identical bill to H.R. 10167. The measures remain separate legislative vehicles and must still satisfy the constitutional requirement that both chambers agree to the same measure before presentation to the President. Each vehicle's chamber status and text version are shown independently.
Common questions
- What is H.R. 10167?
- H.R. 10167 is the Common Cents Act, introduced on August 27, 2026. The House passed it by voice vote on September 14. The Senate received it on September 15. On September 28, the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee was discharged by unanimous consent, and the Senate passed the bill without amendment by unanimous consent. It has cleared Congress and awaits presentation to the President. It is not yet law.
- Has the Common Cents Act been signed into law?
- No. As of the last verification date on this page, H.R. 10167 has passed both the House and the Senate in identical form but has not been presented to, or signed by, the President. It has no enactment date and no effective date. Nothing in the bill is currently in force.
- Does H.R. 10167 require cash rounding?
- No. Section 3(a) permits ordinary rounding when exact change cannot be provided, and Section 3(e) states that the Act does not require a person to round under the ordinary or customer-favorable provisions.
- When can a cash transaction be rounded?
- Under Section 3(a), a covered amount may be rounded when exact change cannot be provided at the time of the cash transaction. Section 3(b) separately permits customer-favorable rounding.
- Are pennies still legal tender under the bill?
- Yes. Section 2 would stop production of one-cent coins for general circulation while preserving the legal-tender status of pennies already minted and issued before enactment.
- Does H.R. 10167 eliminate state cash-rounding laws?
- No. Section 4 is a safe harbor: it protects adherence to Section 3 from constituting a violation of federal, state, tribal, or local requirements. It is not a blanket preemption of state law. Other state and local obligations, such as tax treatment, pricing disclosure, receipts, consumer protection, wage payments, accounting, and refund practices, may remain relevant and depend on final enacted text and later interpretation.
- What does the bill do to the nickel?
- It would permit a five-cent coin with an inner zinc layer and outer nickel layer, subject to testing that it lowers cost and, to the greatest extent practicable, has minimal adverse impact on coin-accepting machines.
- Does the Common Cents Act authorize dime rounding?
- The House-passed text does not create an automatic ten-cent rule. Section 6 creates a process for discontinuing another circulating coin, while Section 3 remains fixed to amounts divisible by five.
- Where can businesses find implementation guidance?
- Centsless maintains an Implementation Center covering POS configuration, employee training, customer communication, policy documentation, and change monitoring for businesses preparing for cash rounding.
Why this matters operationally
This page tracks federal status and text: what H.R. 10167 actually says, where it sits in the legislative process, and how its provisions relate to existing state frameworks. Confirming which authority governs a transaction still depends on jurisdiction, effective date, and final enacted language.
- Context
- Where, by whom, in which direction, and on what date the transaction occurs.
- Applicable rule
- Which rule version is in force and whether it applies to this transaction.
- Authority
- Which published source governs, and whether it is enacted, delegated, or proposed.
- Evidence
- What record explains the outcome after the fact.