Get your tax IDs in Vermont

An EIN, if you need one, takes minutes online. Vermont then adds sales tax if you sell taxable goods, a separate meals and rooms tax if you sell meals or rent rooms, income tax for the people and companies that have to file, and unemployment tax once you are a covered employer. Open only the accounts that match the work.

What’s different in Vermont

• Sales tax is 6%, and some towns add 1%⁴. The local add-on is not statewide. The department’s page lists the towns. Meals, rooms, and served alcohol are different taxes, not the 6%² rate.
• Many LLCs pay $250 a year even with no profit. That minimum is for S corporations, partnerships, and LLCs that elect to be taxed as partnerships or S corporations⁹. A disregarded single-member LLC is not in that group.
• A federal S election does not take the corporation off the Vermont return. An S corporation files a Vermont return if it does enough in Vermont that a C corporation would have to file¹³.
• The 2026 individual rates on the estimated-tax form are labeled preliminary. They run from 3.35% to 8.75%¹⁶. Do not treat that table as the final return instructions.
• Self-employment income earned in Vermont carries a child care contribution of 0.11%¹⁶ on the 2026 estimated-tax form.
• Unemployment tax for most new employers is 1% beginning July 1, 2026. The wage base is the first $15,400¹⁷ of each employee’s wages.

Do this

1. Get an EIN from the IRS if you need one. It is free and, if approved, issued immediately²⁰ online. You will need it to hire, to open many bank accounts, and to file unemployment reports. A sole proprietor with no employees can often use a Social Security number for federal tax. Don’t pay a website to apply for you.
2. Register in myVTax² for the applicable business taxes. The registration instructions explain which accounts must be opened before collecting tax. You need a separate account for sales and use, for meals and rooms, and for withholding. You must register before you collect sales and use tax, meals and rooms tax, or withholding. Taxes not on that list, such as corporate or business income tax, do not have to be registered in advance. You file those returns when they are due¹. Do not open a withholding account before you have people on the payroll.
3. If you sell taxable goods, collect sales tax and calendar the return. The rate is 6% on retail sales of tangible personal property unless the law exempts the sale. Use tax is the same rate as the sales tax, and it is imposed on the buyer. A town may add 1%. In a town that has the sales option, the total is 7%. The add-on is based on where the buyer takes the item or where it is delivered⁴. Check the town list for the place where the buyer takes the goods. You file monthly if the prior calendar year's sales tax was over $500, and quarterly if it was $500 or less. The department decides the filing frequency. A weekend or holiday moves the date to the next business day². A monthly return is due the 25th of the following month, or the 23rd when that month is February. A quarterly return is due the 25th of April, July, October, and January³. The sales-tax page also prints an annual deadline table and does not say who is assigned an annual period.* Use the frequency the department gives you at registration. Local-option sales have to be filed electronically.
4. If you sell meals, rent rooms, or serve alcohol, open a meals and rooms account. The meals and rooms rate is 9%. Served alcohol is 10%. Alcohol is either the 6% sales tax or the 10% alcoholic-beverage tax, never both. Sealed containers for off-premises use are the sales tax. Drinks for immediate consumption are the 10% tax⁵. A local option, where the town has voted for it, makes meals 10%, rooms 10%, and served alcohol 11%⁴. You file monthly if the prior year's meals and rooms tax was over $500, and quarterly at $500 or less. The department assigns the frequency. A monthly meals return is due the 25th of the following month, or the 23rd when that month is February⁷. If you pay the 3%⁶ short-term rental surcharge, you must file electronically. The short-term rental page says the surcharge applies to a furnished home, unit, or room rented to the public for fewer than 30 consecutive days, and for more than 14 days a year, unless it is in a lodging establishment licensed by the Department of Health⁸. It also explains what a booking platform collects for you. Home-bakery and home-catering licenses, and a possible cottage-food licensing exemption, are separate from registration for meals and rooms tax. Do not assume the licensing exemption removes a tax obligation. Those rules are on Licenses and permits.
5. If you are a person who has to file, calendar the individual return. You must file when you are a resident, part-year resident, or nonresident with Vermont income, if a federal return is required, and Vermont income is over $100, or nonresident gross income is over $1,000. The due-date line is typically April 15, or the next business day if that date is a weekend or holiday¹⁵. The 2026 rate table on the estimated-tax form is labeled preliminary. On that form the rates are 3.35%, 6.6%, 7.6%, and 8.75%. The first bracket on the form is $84,700 for a joint return, $68,000 for head of household, $50,750 for single, and $42,350¹⁶ for married filing separately.* Check the instructions for the year you file before you use those brackets. This page does not compute the tax.
6. If you have self-employment income earned while you are physically in Vermont, add the child care contribution to the estimate. Your estimated payment must include the contribution if you earned self-employment income while physically in Vermont, whether you are a resident or a nonresident. The rate on the 2026 form is 0.11%¹⁶. The form does not label this rate preliminary. It does label the income-tax table preliminary.
7. If the business is taxed as a C corporation, calendar Form CO-411. A minimum tax applies to every active corporation, including an LLC that elects to be taxed as a C corporation. The rates on Vermont income are 6% on the lowest band, 7% on the middle band, and 8.5% above that. The corporate tax page prints the income bands and the base tax for each one. The minimum tax is a separate table of five receipt bands. In that order, the minimums are $100, $500, $2,000, $6,000, and $100,000. A small farm corporation’s minimum is $75, and the page defines who that is. A federal extension adds 30 days past the federal extended date. The tax is still due on the original date¹⁰.
8. If the business is a partnership or an LLC taxed as a partnership, calendar the business-entity return. A partnership, or an LLC taxed as a partnership, pays $250 a year unless an exemption applies. A business owned only by Vermont residents, with only Vermont income, may file the short form BI-476, and it still pays the $250 minimum with that return. A partnership limited to managing its investments, with investment income of $5,000 or less and assets of $20,000 or less, is exempt from the $250 tax. An LLC that is not taxed as a partnership is taxed the same way it is taxed federally¹¹. The tax year 2025 instructions, the latest published, say a single-member LLC that is disregarded and reports on the owner's Form 1040, Schedule C, or on Form 1120, does not file Form BI-471¹⁴. A federal extension adds 30 days past the federal extended date. The tax is still due on the original date⁹. This page does not pick the federal classification.
9. If you elected S status, file the business-entity return. An S corporation files a Vermont return if it does enough in Vermont that a C corporation would have to file¹³. The minimum for an S corporation subject to that filing rule is $250¹². The election is federal, on Form 2553²¹. This page does not pick it.
10. Register for unemployment tax when you become a covered employer. One path is employing one or more people on some part of a day in each of 20 different weeks in the current or preceding calendar year. Another is wages of $1,500 in a quarter. Agricultural work uses $20,000 in a quarter, or 10 workers in 20 different weeks, for agricultural work. Household work in a private home uses $1,000¹⁸ in a quarter. The 2026 wage base is $15,400. Most new employers pay 1% beginning July 1, 2026. The rate is different for an out-of-state corporation in construction codes 236, 237, or 238. Those new-employer rates are 1.9% for construction of buildings, 4% for heavy and civil engineering, and 2.7% for specialty trades. Experience rates come later. Most employers stay on the new-employer rate for at least two years. The printed schedules run from 0.4% to 8.4%¹⁷. The page does not say which of the five schedules is in effect for 2026.* Use the rate on your account, not the top of the table. Reports are due April 30, July 31, October 31, and January 31. Quarterly reports have to be filed electronically²².
11. Report new hires through Vermont’s employer e-Services. The report is due within 10 calendar days of the first day the person works for pay. The hire date is the first day services are performed for compensation. File it in the Department of Labor's e-Services application¹⁹. The hiring guide covers the federal side.

What you get back

An EIN from the IRS if you applied, a Vermont tax account only for the taxes you registered, and an unemployment account once the department issues one. Local business licenses are on Licenses and permits.