Vermont sales tax, and who sets it
Tax year 2026
Set by the state
6%
Set locally
0.43%
statewide average
Combined
6.43%
Local share
6.69%
of what you pay
Work out the tax on a purchase in Vermont
Add the tax on
6.43% effectiveThe general rate applies here: 6.43%, state and local combined. “Statewide average” is a comparison estimate. Named locations use the stored local rate; city and special-district coverage varies, so an address may differ. Rate source · as of 2026-07-01.
How Vermont's sales tax is put together
- Vermont sets nearly all of this itself. The state rate is about 6%, and local governments can add only a little on top — on average across Vermont the extra comes to about 0.43%. Moving across a county line here changes your bill barely at all. In some states it changes it a great deal.
- No sales tax on groceries in Vermont. Unprepared food is exempt outright, so what you save depends on how much of your shopping is raw ingredients rather than ready meals. That boundary is where the money actually is, and it catches people out constantly at the deli counter.
- Buy clothes in Vermont and there is no sales tax on them. Only a handful of states do this. It narrows what gets taxed here, which is part of why a state's headline rate tells you less than people assume — the rate matters, but so does the list of things it applies to.
- Vermont retains most rate-setting authority at state level: the state rate is about 6% and the local add-on, on average across Vermont, is about 0.43%, a small fraction of the combined charge. Local authority exists but is narrow, whether by statutory cap or by limited take-up. The practical effect is that the state rate is a reliable proxy for what a purchase pays anywhere in Vermont — which is not true of the states that delegate heavily, and is why the two groups should not be compared on the same figure.
- Grocery purchases are exempt from sales tax in Vermont. Because the exemption is complete rather than reduced, the practical question for a shopper is classification rather than rate: prepared and heated foods generally fall outside the exemption and are taxed at the full combined rate. States drawing that boundary differently produce noticeably different effective rates on identical shopping baskets, which is why a grocery exemption is a weaker predictor of household sales tax burden than it first appears.
- Vermont places clothing outside its sales tax base entirely. Because a state's revenue is the product of its rate and its base, a narrow base of this kind is normally paired with a higher rate on what remains, and comparing two states on rate alone will misrepresent both. The exemption's practical reach depends on how the statute treats footwear, accessories and athletic apparel, which varies among the states that grant it.
Sales tax on this purchase
A $75,000 salary
| Tax added | $6.43 |
|---|---|
| Rate appliedStatewide average | 6.43% |
Uses this location’s stored combined rate and category rule. Clothing is one item; address-level coverage varies.
Rates across this state
A $75,000 salary
| Counties in this state | 14 |
|---|---|
| Different rates among them | 1 |
| Lowest county rate | 6% |
| Highest county rate | 6% |
Most counties here share a rate with many others. The county line rarely changes what you pay.
County floors only — city, transit and special-district taxes are excluded where applicable.
At the register
A $75,000 salary
| Tax added | $6.43 |
|---|---|
| You hand over | $106.43 |
| Rate here | 6.43% |
Uses this location’s stored combined rate and category rule. Clothing is one item; address-level coverage varies.
How much of that was tax
A $75,000 salary
| Goods before tax | $100.54 |
|---|---|
| Rate applied | 6.43% |
Uses the selected combined rate for ordinary goods. Exempt items or a mixed receipt change the split.
Every county here
A $75,000 salary
| Lowest | 6% |
|---|---|
| Highest | 6% |
| Gap between them | 0% |
County floors only — city, transit and special-district taxes are excluded where applicable.
What gets taxed, in each
A $75,000 salary
Vermont
Statewide average
Texas
Harris County (Houston)
- Sales tax
- Fuel
- Tobacco
| Category | Vermont | Texas |
|---|---|---|
| Groceries | Exempt | Exempt |
| Clothing at $100 | Exempt | 8.25% |
| Fuel | 12.1¢ | 20¢ |
| Tobacco | $3.08 | $1.41 |
Grocery and general rates use the locations named here. Clothing is one item priced at $100; a more expensive garment may be taxed differently. Fuel and tobacco have separate units and scales.
The split, county by county
The state rate is the same everywhere in Vermont. Anything beyond it was decided by a county or a city. These counties are a sample chosen to show the range, not a complete list.
| County | State | Local | Combined |
|---|---|---|---|
| Statewide average | 6% | 0.43% | 6.43% |
| Chittenden County (Burlington) | same | 1% | 7% |
| Rutland County (Rutland) | same | 1% | 7% |
What it costs on a thousand dollars
The same purchase in four categories, priced on average across Vermont. A flat thousand dollars is used deliberately — this is Vermont's own rate restated in money, not a claim about what anyone spends.
| What you're buying | Tax as share of price | Tax on $1,000 |
|---|---|---|
| General goods | 6.43% | $64 |
| Groceries | 0% | $0 |
| Prescription drugs | 0% | $0 |
| Clothing | 0% | $0 |
Every county in Vermont
This is the whole state, not a sample — 14 counties, from 6% in Addison County up to 6% in Windsor County. These are county floors. City, transit and special-district taxes can add to them, so an address may pay more.
Complete county coverage for Vermont: 14 counties spanning 6% (Addison County) to 6% (Windsor County), across 1 distinct rates. Figures are county floors: the state rate plus the county's own levy, excluding municipal, transit and special-district taxes. The representative location figures earlier in the page may include additional local layers.
| County | State portion | County levy | Floor (state + county) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Addison County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Bennington County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Caledonia County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Chittenden County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Essex County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Franklin County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Grand Isle County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Lamoille County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Orange County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Orleans County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Rutland County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Washington County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Windham County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Windsor County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
Streamlined Sales Tax member rate files plus individual state Department of Revenue rate tables — county-level rows only; city, transit and special-district levies excluded — as of 2026-01-01, last verified 2026-08-29.
What this page does not cover
- Only sampled locations appear in the first Vermont county table and calculator list. Covering every one would mean maintaining thousands of rates that change on their own local timetables, so this site samples instead. The consequence is simple: treat the figures as the shape of the thing, and your receipt as the truth.
- This page covers Vermont's general sales tax and nothing else. Fuel, alcohol and tobacco carry their own separate taxes, usually built into the shelf price where you never see them. Cars, hotel rooms and restaurant meals are often taxed at their own rates too. The general rate is the floor, not the ceiling.
- An exemption is a category, not a promise. Vermont decides for itself where each category stops — hot food is usually outside the grocery exemption, and accessories are often outside the clothing one. That boundary work is where the real difference between two states with the same rate turns up.
- Vermont's first county table and calculator location list are curated samples rather than an exhaustive address dataset, a deliberate trade against maintaining several thousand independently-revised local rates. The figures characterise the distribution of local add-ons; they do not establish a minimum or maximum for the state. Address-level accuracy requires either the state revenue authority's lookup or a recent transaction record.
- The figures here describe Vermont's general sales tax only. Selective excise taxes on motor fuel, alcohol and tobacco operate separately and are typically embedded in the displayed price rather than added at the register. Vehicle purchases, lodging and prepared food frequently attract their own rates or additional local levies. The general rate should therefore be treated as a floor for a given transaction rather than a complete account of what it is taxed.
- Exemption treatment in Vermont is recorded here at category level; the operative detail is where the state's statute terminates each category. Heated and prepared foods generally revert to the full rate despite a grocery exemption, and clothing exemptions are typically bounded by price threshold or by use. These definitional boundaries account for much of the divergence between states that appear equivalent on rate and exemption list alone.
Questions people ask
Why is the tax at the register higher than the state rate?
The state sets about 6%; local governments stack theirs above it, reaching about 6.43% in practice. The total moves with the address, not with the purchase.
Is food taxed the same as everything else?
Groceries escape it here. What separates exempt food from taxable food is usually whether it has been prepared, so identical ingredients can be taxed or not depending on who assembled them.
Is clothing really untaxed here?
Largely, yes — but exemptions of this kind usually have edges. Sports gear, protective equipment and formal wear are commonly written back out of a general clothing exemption, and some states cap it per garment, so an expensive single item can be taxable where a cheap one is not.
Will the rate change if I shop in the next town?
Not by much. Only about 6.69% of the combined rate is set below state level here, so the figure moves a little across county lines rather than a lot — the state rate is most of what you pay wherever you are.
What composes the combined rate in this state?
The combined rate is the state levy plus every local levy sourced to the point of sale. Vermont sets about 6%; the representative combined rate is about 6.43%, of which about 6.69% is decided locally. A single statewide figure is therefore an approximation.
How are groceries classified for sales tax here?
Vermont exempts groceries from general sales tax. The exemption typically excludes prepared food, and definitional boundaries — utensils supplied, heating, or a seller's prepared-food share — determine which side a specific item falls on. Those tests vary by state and are not uniform.
What are the limits of this state's clothing exemption?
Vermont exempts clothing from general sales tax. Such exemptions commonly exclude athletic, protective and formal apparel, and two states cap the exemption per item, so a single high-value garment may be partly taxable. Accessories are generally excluded.
How much intra-state variation is there in the combined rate?
Locally determined levies account for about 6.69% of the representative combined rate, so intra-state dispersion is limited and the statewide figure approximates most locations closely. Rates remain sourced to the point of sale.