Vermont Vending Machine Permits and Licenses

Vending permits and licenses by state · Vermont

We found no Vermont license for vending machines themselves. What you need is tax registration, and it is free. Food and drinks sold from a machine fall under the 9% Meals and Rooms Tax, candy, chips and soda included, and one meals license covers every machine you run. Trading cards, toys and other merchandise fall under the 6% sales tax. Below is each requirement and the law it comes from.

Vermont vending requirements at a glance

FreeSales tax and meals tax licenses

9%Meals tax on all vending food and drinks

6%Sales tax on cards and merchandise

1%Local option tax added in some towns

Required

Sales and meals tax licenses

Both free from the Department of Taxes. Meals license for food and drinks, sales tax license for merchandise.

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Recommended

Resale certificate

Buy merchandise tax-free with Form S-3. Form M-3 covers sandwiches and other meals you resell.

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Applies

9% meals tax on vending food

All food and drinks sold from a machine, candy, chips and soda included, unless an exemption fits.

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Required

Tax-included price sign

Food and drink machines post a sign, such as "All prices include the Vermont Meals Tax."

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Depends

Food license

We found none for the machines. A kitchen that makes food for them may need a Health Department license.

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Not required

Trading card license

Pokémon cards need only the sales tax license. They are taxed at 6%.

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Not required

Mystery products

No special license. They are taxable merchandise at 6%, covered by your Sales and Use Tax license.

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Varies

Local option tax

1% more in towns that adopt it. Burlington and Rutland City collect their own meals taxes.

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Last reviewed: October 28, 2026  ·  Sources: Vermont Statutes Online, Vermont Department of Taxes, Vermont Department of Health, Vermont Secretary of State, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets, federal regulations (full list at the bottom)  ·  General information, not legal advice.

• Requirements and laws
• Do you need a license?
• Sales tax
• Food and drinks
• Cards, mystery and toys
• Federal rules
• Business setup
• FAQ
• Sources

Vermont requirements and the laws behind them

Do you need a license to run a vending machine in Vermont?

Not a vending license. We found no Vermont statute, rule or agency license list that licenses vending machines or vending operators as such. The Department of Taxes' vending machine guidance lists one registration, a free business tax account and license, the Department of Health's retail food license types have no vending class, and the Agency of Agriculture's license library has no vending license. What you need depends on what your machines sell:

• Food or drinks: a Meals and Rooms Tax license. One license covers all your machines.
• Cards, toys and other merchandise: a Sales and Use Tax license.
• Both: both licenses. The Department of Taxes sets up a separate business tax account for each tax.

Towns handle zoning, and some add a 1% local option tax. Check with the town where each machine will sit before you install it.

Sales tax and the meals tax on vending sales in Vermont

Two tax licenses, both free

Food and drinks from a machine fall under the Meals and Rooms Tax. Everything else falls under the Sales and Use Tax. You register through myVTax or on Form BR-400, with a separate account for each tax, and the Department of Taxes says "Registration is free."

• Meals and Rooms Tax license: needed before you sell food or drinks. It is issued "without charge," and a vending operator does not need "a license for each individual machine" (32 V.S.A. § 9271). Keep a list of machine locations, because the Department can ask for it (Reg. § 1.9271-1(C)).
• Sales and Use Tax license: needed to sell merchandise or to buy goods for resale, also without charge (32 V.S.A. § 9707). The rules call for a license for each place of business (Reg. § 1.9707-1), and the one-license line in the vending guidance is about the meals tax. Ask the Department in writing whether merchandise machines at several sites need more than one.
• Returns: the Department sets how often you file. Monthly returns are due by the 25th, and small accounts can file quarterly or yearly (§ 9243; § 9775). With more than one location or any local option tax, you must file and pay electronically (Meals and Rooms Tax).

You collect the tax, so buy your inventory tax-free

The tax on your vending sales is yours to collect, so you should not also pay tax on what you buy to resell. Businesses "must register for a Sales and Use Tax account and license before using any exemption certificate" (FS-1017).

• Form S-3, Vermont Sales Tax Exemption Certificate for Purchases for Resale, by Exempt Organizations, and by Direct Pay Permit: for cards, toys and other merchandise. Check "For resale/wholesale" and enter your eight-digit Vermont Sales and Use Tax account number. Check "Multiple Purchase" to cover later orders from the same supplier. Give it to the supplier, not the Department. Download Form S-3 (PDF).
• Form M-3, Vermont Meals Tax Exemption Certificate for Purchases of Meals for Resale: for sandwiches and other taxable meals you buy from a commissary or caterer to resell. It asks for your Meals and Rooms Tax account number (32 V.S.A. § 9202(10)(D)(iii)). Download Form M-3 (PDF).
• Soft drinks and snacks: soft drinks are taxed under the sales tax when sold outside the meals tax (FS-1151), so a drink supplier may want Form S-3. Food bought for resale, like candy and chips, is exempt from sales tax (§ 9741(13)). Confirm with the Department which form each supplier needs.
• Out-of-state suppliers: Vermont is a Streamlined Sales Tax member and lists the Streamlined Sales Tax Certificate of Exemption (Form F0003) with its own forms. We found no Vermont source accepting the Multistate Tax Commission's Uniform certificate, so do not count on it.

The certificate covers what you resell, not the machines. Inventory you bought tax-free and then use yourself owes 6% use tax, and so does a machine from an out-of-state seller that charged no Vermont tax (32 V.S.A. § 9773; FS-1018). All forms are on the exemption certificates page.

Tax rates

The meals tax is 9%, figured on each sale with a cents table that charges 1 cent on sales of 1 to 11 cents (32 V.S.A. § 9241). The sales tax is 6% (§ 9771). Towns can add a 1% local option tax on meals, sales or both, for 10% on meals and 7% on sales. The Department lists the towns and has a finder on its local option tax page, and you collect it where the machine sits (FS-1085). Burlington and Rutland City collect their own local meals taxes, so call the city if you have food machines there.

What is taxable in a Vermont vending machine

The meals tax law makes "food or beverage sold through a vending machine" a taxable meal "regardless where sold and whether or not prepackaged" (32 V.S.A. § 9202(10)(C)). The Department's vending fact sheet, FS-1085, says it plainly: "All food or beverages sold through a vending machine are therefore taxable."

• Snacks and drinks: candy, chips and cookies from a machine are taxable meals, even though they would be exempt from sales tax at a grocery store. All beverages from a machine, soft drinks included, fall under the meals tax, not the sales tax.
• Card readers: the law defines a vending machine as one "operated by coin, currency, credit card, slug, token, coupon, or similar device" (§ 9202(19)), so cashless machines are covered.
• Exemptions: they turn on the location, the customer and who runs the machine. Machines in schools are exempt, and so are SNAP purchases on machines that take EBT cards. Machines serving only government employees, machines on trains, buses or planes, and several other cases are listed in FS-1085 and on the vending machines page.
• Price sign: vending prices include the tax, so you must post a sign on your machines, such as "All prices include the Vermont Meals Tax." In a local option town the notice must cover both state and local tax (Reg. § 1.9202(15)-4).

Anything that is not food or drink is taxable at 6%: trading cards, sealed Pokémon product, mystery items, toys and general merchandise (What is Taxable and Exempt). The sales tax law bars advertising that the tax will not be separately charged, unless the Commissioner grants a written waiver (32 V.S.A. § 9708). Ask about that waiver before you set tax-included prices on a merchandise machine.

Food and drinks: Vermont food licensing and vending machines

We found no Vermont food license for vending machines. The Department of Health's Food and Lodging Program licenses restaurants, caterers, food trucks and other food service, and its list of retail food licenses has no vending category. Its Health Regulations for Food Service Establishments define a food service establishment and add that the term "does not include the location of food vending machines." The license fee law lists no vending class either (18 V.S.A. § 4353).

• Sealed snacks and drinks: no state food license that we found.
• Food you make yourself: the law requires a Health Department license for a "food manufacturing facility" or "any other place in which food is prepared and served" (18 V.S.A. § 4351), and food manufacturing includes "preparing, packing" or "distributing food for sale" (§ 4301). If you make sandwiches or other food for your machines, your kitchen may need a license.
• Refrigerated food: the same Health regulations include vending equipment rules, such as an automatic shutoff that stops sales when a machine cannot hold food at a safe temperature. Ask the Food and Lodging Program (802-863-7221) which rules apply to you.

Vermont rules for trading cards, mystery products and toys

Pokémon and other trading cards

Vermont has no special license for selling trading cards. They are taxable merchandise, so the Sales and Use Tax license covers you. The legal questions with card machines are about intellectual property, not state permits: stock authentic product, and keep Pokémon characters and logos off the machine itself. Our guide to the legal side of trading card vending machines covers both, and the Pokémon vending machine guide covers the business.

Mystery products and toys

Blind boxes, mystery bags and capsule toys are merchandise. Like trading cards and toys, they are taxable at 6%, so the Sales and Use Tax license covers them. We found no special license for selling them from a vending machine. See our guide to mystery vending machines.

Plush and toys

We found no Vermont registration for stuffed toys. A separate law has manufacturers of children's products, toys included, report certain chemicals to the Department of Health (18 V.S.A. § 1775), and a manufacturer includes anyone "whose name is affixed to a children's product or its packaging" (§ 1772). If you sell toys under your own brand, ask the Department whether you must report.

Federal rules that apply in Vermont and every other state

ADA reach ranges

Where vending machines are provided, at least one of each type has to meet the operable parts rules in the 2010 ADA Standards (sections 228.1 and 309). The parts a customer operates, like the screen, card reader and pickup door, have to sit within reach: between 15 and 48 inches above the floor for an unobstructed reach (section 308).

Calorie labeling for food

If you own or operate 20 or more vending machines that sell food, federal rules require calorie information for any item whose Nutrition Facts label the buyer cannot see before buying (21 CFR 101.8). In glass-front machines, packages that show calories on the front in large enough type can meet the rule.

Schools

Machines that sell food to students during the school day may stock only items that meet the USDA's Smart Snacks nutrition standards. The school day runs from midnight until 30 minutes after the official school day ends (7 CFR 210.11).

Setting up the business in Vermont

• Entity: form an LLC by filing Articles of Organization with the Secretary of State. The fee is $155, and each annual report costs $45 (11 V.S.A. § 4012). The report is due within three months after your fiscal year ends (§ 4033).
• Assumed business name: an individual or partnership doing business under another name registers it with the Secretary of State within 10 days of starting (11 V.S.A. § 1621). Registration costs $70 (§ 1625) and must be renewed every five years for $65 (§ 1635).
• Minimum income tax: an LLC taxed as a partnership pays at least $250 a year (32 V.S.A. § 5921), and so does an S corporation (§ 5915). An LLC without partnership treatment is taxed in Vermont the way it is taxed federally.
• Local rules: check zoning with each town where a machine will sit, and check whether the town has a local option tax.

Vermont vending permit and license FAQ

Do I need a license to put a vending machine in Vermont?

We found no Vermont license for vending machines or operators as such. You need free tax registration with the Department of Taxes: a Meals and Rooms Tax license if your machines sell food or drinks, and a Sales and Use Tax license if they sell cards, toys or other merchandise.

Do I need a food license for a snack vending machine in Vermont?

We found none. The Department of Health's food service rules say a food service establishment does not include "the location of food vending machines," and its license fee law has no vending class. If you prepare food for your machines yourself, ask the Food and Lodging Program whether your kitchen needs a license.

Is vending machine food taxed in Vermont?

Yes. Food and drinks sold through a vending machine are taxable meals at 9%, candy, chips, cookies and soft drinks included, plus 1% in towns with a local option meals tax. Some locations are exempt, such as schools.

Do I need a license to sell Pokémon cards from a vending machine in Vermont?

No special license. Trading cards are taxable merchandise at 6%, so the Sales and Use Tax license covers you. Stock authentic product and keep Pokémon characters and logos off the machine itself.

How much does a Vermont sales tax license cost?

Nothing. The law has the Department of Taxes issue both the Sales and Use Tax license and the Meals and Rooms Tax license without charge (32 V.S.A. §§ 9707, 9271). Register through myVTax or on Form BR-400.

Do I pay sales tax on inventory I buy for my vending machines in Vermont?

Not if you buy it to resell. Give suppliers Form S-3 for merchandise, or Form M-3 for sandwiches and other meals, and collect the tax when items sell. Inventory you use yourself is subject to 6% use tax.

Do I need a sign on my vending machine in Vermont?

Yes, on machines that sell food or drinks. Vending prices include the meals tax, so the Department of Taxes requires a sign telling customers, for example "All prices include the Vermont Meals Tax."

Sources

1. 32 V.S.A. chapter 225, Meals and Rooms Tax: § 9202, § 9241, § 9242, § 9243, § 9271
2. 32 V.S.A. chapter 233, Sales and Use Tax: § 9701, § 9707, § 9708, § 9741, § 9745, § 9771, § 9773, § 9775
3. Vermont Department of Taxes: Vending Machines, FS-1085, Meals Taxes on Vending Machines, FS-1151, Chips and Soft Drinks, FS-1017, FS-1018
4. Vermont Department of Taxes: Sales and Use Tax, Meals and Rooms Tax, Register a Business Tax Account, Local Option Tax, What is Taxable and Exempt
5. Vermont Department of Taxes, Exemption Certificates: Form S-3, Form M-3, Streamlined Form F0003
6. Vermont Sales and Use Tax Regulations (2019) and Meals and Rooms Tax Regulations (2022)
7. Vermont Department of Health: Food and Lodging Program, Retail Food Service Establishments, Health Regulations for Food Service Establishments
8. 18 V.S.A.: § 4301, § 4351, § 4353, § 1772, § 1775
9. Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets, Licensing and Registration Library
10. 32 V.S.A. chapter 151, income taxes: § 5915, § 5921; Business Entity Income Tax
11. 11 V.S.A.: § 4012, § 4033, § 1621, § 1625, § 1635; Vermont Secretary of State, Fees and Domestic Formation
12. 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design and U.S. Access Board guide to operable parts
13. 21 CFR 101.8, calorie labeling of food in vending machines
14. 7 CFR 210.11, competitive food standards (Smart Snacks)