How Much Do Fishing Guides Make in Vermont?
Builds guide sites for a livingPublished July 5, 2026Last updated July 27, 202619 min read
- Sales tax is charged on retail sales of tangible personal property, at 6 percent.
- Meals and rooms tax is 9 percent, and the alcoholic beverage tax is 10.
- A room in your own home is caught if it falls within the definition of a hotel.
- The transit exemption for meals names trains, buses and airplanes only.
- Burlington and Rutland City collect their own local taxes, not the state.
Vermont draws its sales tax around goods, not services, which puts a guided day outside it before any argument starts. That is the shortest answer this run of pages has produced. It is also not the end of it, because a guide who hands a client a sandwich or a bed has stepped out of the sales tax statute and into a different one, with its own rate, its own licence, its own return and its own list of exemptions. The line between those two statutes is not the trip. It is lunch.
| What is sold | Tax | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| The guided day itself | Sales tax reaches property, not services | Not charged |
| A meal you prepare and sell | Meals and rooms tax | 9% |
| A bed in a cabin or a room | Meals and rooms tax | 9% |
| A drink for immediate consumption | Alcoholic beverage tax | 10% |
| A sealed bottle to take away | Sales and use tax | 6% |
| Rods, flies and gear you retail | Sales and use tax | 6% |
| Any of the above in a local option town | Add the municipal 1% | Plus 1% |
What the sales tax actually reaches
Retail sales of tangible personal property, at 6 percent.
The department's sales and use tax page states the base in one line: Vermont sales tax is charged on the retail sales of tangible personal property unless exempted by law, and the rate is 6 percent. Use tax is imposed on the buyer at the same rate. Services are not named in that sentence, which is the structural difference between Vermont and most of the states covered in these pages.
So is a guided trip taxed
Not by the provision quoted above, and this page goes no further than that.
Care is needed here, so I will be exact about the limit of what was checked. The sales tax base as the department states it is tangible personal property, and a day of guiding is a service rather than property. This page did not research Vermont's enumerated services, any regulation extending the base, or any ruling on guiding specifically. What it can say is that the department's own summary of the base does not reach a service, which is a starting point rather than a conclusion.
The threshold for selling gear from away
$100,000 or 200 transactions in any preceding twelve months.
An operator who sells product as well as days should know where registration starts. Out-of-state vendors making sales in Vermont must register and collect sales tax if they made sales of at least $100,000 or 200 individual transactions during any preceding twelve-month period. The transaction count is the part that catches small sellers, because two hundred low-value orders reaches it long before the dollar figure does.
The second statute
Meals and rooms tax at 9 percent, alcohol at 10.
The department's introduction to the meals and rooms tax gives the rates plainly: the Vermont meals and rooms tax is 9 percent and the alcoholic beverage tax is 10 percent. Both sit well above the 6 percent sales tax. So the parts of a guiding package most operators treat as incidental extras carry a heavier rate than the merchandise on the shop wall.
Who the rooms tax catches
Anyone whose lodging falls within the definition of a hotel.
The department addresses the informal case directly. Any meal offered for sale by a restaurant, or room offered for sale by a hotel, is subject to tax, and if you offer a room in your home or any kind of privately owned lodging for rent and the rental falls within the guidelines for a hotel, you must collect and remit rooms tax. A bunkroom above a shop or a cabin let to clients is therefore a question of definition, not of scale. How that side of an operation is usually built is set out in the page on what a fishing lodge is.
The licence has to be on the wall
Free to obtain, required before collecting, displayed where customers can see it.
Registration comes first and is not optional. Vermont businesses must register for a business tax account and a meals and rooms tax licence before collecting the tax, registration is free, there is no charge for the licence, and it must be displayed at the place of business where it can be easily seen by customers. An operator running more than one location has a single business tax account but each location must obtain its own licence and file its own schedule.
Food sold by somebody who is not a restaurant
Anything not pre-packaged is taxable.
The rule that catches a guide is the one for non-restaurants. All food and beverage are taxable when sold by restaurants, and when sold by non-restaurants, non-pre-packaged foods are taxable, with the published examples being sandwiches other than frozen ones, heated food or beverages, items from a salad bar, and party platters and prepared food. A shore lunch is prepared food sold by a non-restaurant, which is precisely the category described.
Where groceries sit
Outside it, on the immediate consumption line.
The boundary is drawn by when the food gets eaten. Groceries are not taxable, and are generally items of food sold not for immediate consumption but intended for consumption later off the premises of the seller. Self-serve bulk items such as fruit, vegetables, candy, flour, nuts and coffee beans are not taxable meals even when sold by a restaurant, and neither are grocery-type takeaway items such as whole pies or cakes, loaves of bread, or single serving bakery items sold in threes or more.
The transit exemption, and where it stops
Trains, buses and airplanes are named. Boats are not.
This is the finding a Vermont guide should notice. Meals are sold tax free when furnished by any person while transporting passengers for hire by train, bus, or airplane, if furnished on any train, bus, or airplane. The exemption is written around three named conveyances. A charter boat carrying paying passengers on Lake Champlain is transporting passengers for hire in every ordinary sense, and it is not a train, a bus or an airplane.
What that means for a shore lunch
The exemption next to yours is not yours.
Reasoning of mine, not the department's. A guide reading the exempt list will find a provision that describes almost exactly what they do, and then find that the vessel they do it from is missing from the list. This page did not research whether any other provision reaches meals served on a boat, and nothing here concludes that a shore lunch is taxable in any particular case. What it does say is that the transit exemption, read as written, does not name the conveyance this trade uses. The cost side of feeding people is worked through in the page on client meals.
The exemption for camps
Meals furnished while operating a summer camp for children, in that camp.
One neighbouring provision is worth knowing because some guiding operations run youth programmes. Meals are sold tax free when furnished by any person while operating a summer camp for children, in such camp. Like the transit exemption it is drawn narrowly around a specific setting rather than around a type of customer, and whether a youth day on the water falls inside it is not a question this page can answer.
Buying food to sell on
Exempt on the way in, taxable on the way out, with a certificate in between.
The resale mechanism works the same way it does everywhere and the paperwork is specific. Meals and beverages are exempt when purchased for resale, and to be eligible the purchaser must provide the state's meals tax exemption certificate for purchases of meals for resale. When the food or beverage purchased for resale is subsequently sold, that sale is subject to tax. Certificates must be received at the time of sale, signed, dated and complete, and retained for at least three years from the date of the last sale they cover.
The risk sits with the seller
Accept a certificate you should have doubted and you owe the tax.
One sentence puts real weight on the party who did not claim the exemption. The responsibility is on the seller to verify that the buyer will resell the meals, and if the seller accepts an exemption certificate with no reasonable expectation that the meals will be resold, the seller will be responsible for the meals tax not collected from the buyer. For a guide who buys wholesale for trips and also runs a shop that sells to other operators, that cuts both ways in the same business.
The alcohol line
Six percent or ten, never both, decided by immediate consumption.
Vermont makes the two taxes mutually exclusive and states the test. A sale of an alcoholic beverage could be subject to the 6 percent sales and use tax or the 10 percent alcoholic beverage tax, but never both. Sales tax applies to alcoholic beverages sold at retail that are not for immediate consumption, including those sold in a sealed container for off-premises consumption, and the 10 percent tax applies to all other sales for immediate consumption unless otherwise exempt. The nonprofit, school and government exemptions do not apply to alcohol at all.
If the tax is inside your price
You have to say so, in one of two specified ways.
Guides habitually quote one number for a day, which brings a disclosure obligation with it. Businesses are required to give notice to customers when the meals and rooms tax or the alcoholic beverage tax is included in the pricing of food, room rentals or served alcoholic beverages. You must either provide a sign in an area where customers may view it, such as near the cash register, or make a statement on the menu, price list, bill, invoice, statement or receipt given to the customer. You must also provide an itemised bill to any purchaser on request.
Two towns run their own
Burlington and Rutland City collect separately from the state.
The local layer has an exception that matters to anyone working the lake. A business in a municipality with a 1 percent local option meals or rooms tax must collect and remit that too. But the City of Burlington and the City of Rutland administer and collect their own local meals, entertainment, lodging or alcoholic beverage taxes, and a business in either is directed to contact the city rather than the department. Burlington is the Champlain charter town, so this is not a marginal case here.
When it all has to be paid
By the 25th of the following month, on a frequency the department sets.
Both taxes run on the same clock. A monthly filer must pay meals and rooms tax for the month by the 25th day of the following month, with June due by 25 July, and the sales and use tax deadline is stated identically. The department determines the filing frequency for each taxpayer rather than letting the business choose, and due dates falling on a weekend or holiday move to the next business day. Electronic filing is required for short-term rental surcharge payers, for multiple locations, for local option collectors, and where the prior year's remittance exceeded $100,000.
The rounding rule is written down
Third decimal place, rounded up above four.
A small detail that tells you how closely this is administered. Tax computation must be carried to the third decimal place, and the tax must be rounded to a whole cent using a method that rounds up to the next cent whenever the third decimal place is greater than four. Sellers may elect to compute tax on an item basis or an invoice basis, and the rounding rule may be applied to the aggregated state and local taxes.
Why the federal half of this page is about deposits
Because both systems are about money you are holding for somebody else.
My framing, not either agency's. Meals and rooms tax is collected from a client, held, and remitted on a fixed date. Employment taxes work the same way, and a guide who takes on a second boat and puts somebody on the payroll meets the second version of the same obligation. Whether a subguide belongs on a payroll at all is a separate question, taken up in the page on contractor against employee and in the page on taking on a first subguide.
Two deposit schedules
Monthly or semiweekly, decided by a lookback period.
The federal guidance on employment tax deposits sets out the mechanism. The schedule depends on the amount of employment taxes reported during a lookback period, which for a quarterly filer is the twelve months starting 1 July of the second preceding year and ending 30 June of the prior year. Report $50,000 or less in that window and you are a monthly schedule depositor; report more and you are semiweekly. The terms describe which rules apply, not how often anyone is paid.
What each schedule requires
The 15th of the following month, or a fixed weekday gap.
A monthly schedule depositor generally deposits taxes on payments made during a month on or before the 15th day of the following month, so January payments are due by 15 February. A semiweekly depositor works to paydays: a Wednesday, Thursday or Friday payday deposits by the following Wednesday, and a Saturday, Sunday, Monday or Tuesday payday deposits by the following Friday. Semiweekly depositors have at least three business days after the close of a semiweekly period.
The two thresholds that override everything
$2,500 at the bottom and $100,000 at the top.
Both ends have their own rule. Where the employment tax liability for the preceding or current quarter is under $2,500, the tax may be paid with a timely filed return instead of being deposited, provided no next-day obligation arises. And regardless of schedule, accumulating $100,000 or more of taxes on any day means depositing by the next business day, after which the employer becomes a semiweekly depositor for the rest of that calendar year and the following one. A new employer has a lookback of zero and therefore starts monthly.
How the money has to move
Electronically, scheduled the day before by 8pm Eastern.
The mechanics are prescriptive and the timing is earlier than people expect. All federal tax deposits must be made by electronic funds transfer, and for a deposit to be on time it must be scheduled by 8pm Eastern the day before the due date. A same-day service exists through the Treasury for anyone who misses that window, but it has to be arranged with a financial institution in advance and may carry a fee. Deposits must be 100 percent of the liability, and penalties may apply for paying late, paying short, or mailing a payment instead of depositing it.
The smallest market in the series, and a shrinking one
Payroll employment ran below the prior year for five months of six.
Vermont posts a genuinely weak reading, and it is the first state covered where the payroll survey sits below the prior year for most of the half. Total nonfarm employment fell from 311.8 thousand jobs to 310.6, with twelve-month changes of minus 0.7, minus 0.4, minus 0.4, minus 0.3, 0.0 and minus 0.2 percent. The civilian labour force is among the smallest covered anywhere in this run, at 338.8 thousand in June against 345.4 in January, and household employment fell every month too, 336.2 thousand to 330.0.
And the visitor sector turned over mid-season
From plus 2.8 percent in February to minus 1.1 in June.
Leisure and hospitality started the year growing and ended it contracting, running 1.4, 2.8, 2.0, 2.0, minus 0.6 and minus 1.1 percent, with the level dropping from 36.1 thousand jobs to 34.7. Professional and business services finished at minus 2.4 percent after a trough of minus 3.9, and trade and transport at minus 1.4. The unemployment rate sat at 2.6 percent for five straight months, which on these numbers reflects a labour force leaving rather than employers hiring. Mining and logging shows plus 12.5 percent, which on a base of 0.9 thousand jobs is a rounding artefact rather than a trend. Both readings come from the federal at-a-glance table for Vermont, extracted 22 July 2026.
Where the sources run out
None of them prices a day on the water.
The limits are worth naming. A sales tax page defines a base and never asks what anyone charges. A meals and rooms introduction is about a licence and a rate. A federal deposit schedule assumes there is already a payroll. And a sector of 34.7 thousand jobs, falling, contains this trade without counting it. Vermont guiding also splits between a big lake fleet and a river fly tradition two hours apart, and what different species work pays is collected in the rates by species page.
Where the tax on a Vermont package actually lands
Arithmetic on published rates applied to an invented package. Vermont state taxes only.
The invented package. A guided day at $650, a lunch the guide prepares at $75, and a night in the operator's cabin at $210. Total $935.
The guided day. Sales tax is charged on retail sales of tangible personal property, and a day of guiding is not that. Nothing calculated.
The lunch. Meals and rooms tax at 9 percent of $75 is $6.75.
The cabin. Meals and rooms tax at 9 percent of $210 is $18.90.
Total tax: $25.65 on a $935 package, an effective rate of about 2.74 percent, and not one cent of it is sales tax.
In a local option town. Add the municipal 1 percent to the meals and rooms components and the total becomes $28.50.
Not included. Alcohol at its own 10 percent rate, the Burlington and Rutland City taxes which those cities administer themselves, any federal tax, and any sales tax on gear.
Reading a Vermont season
The trip is the simple part. Everything you serve is a second business.
Four practical points. Do not assume the meals and rooms tax is a restaurant problem, because a prepared lunch sold by a non-restaurant is squarely inside it. Get the licence and hang it up, since display is part of the requirement rather than a formality. Say so on the invoice if the tax is inside a quoted day rate, because notice is compulsory in one of two specified forms. And if you work out of Burlington, deal with the city as well as the state. What a package should be priced at before any of this is worked through in the page on prepayment against deposits.
Vermont against the others
A narrow tax base with a second statute hidden behind it.
Hold it against Utah, where the commission publishes a document taxing guide services by name and hinges two exemptions on how the invoice is written. Vermont never brings the trip into the base at all, then applies a higher rate to the lunch than Utah applies to anything. Hold it against New Hampshire next door, where the business profits tax starts from a gross receipts threshold, and the contrast for anyone working near the border is worth pricing rather than guessing. Whether to run under a lodge or independently is taken up in that comparison, and the business hub carries the remainder.
Nothing above reports what a Vermont guide charges or earns. The 6, 9 and 10 percent rates, the 1 percent local option, the $100,000 and 200 transaction registration thresholds, the three-year certificate retention, the $2,500 and $100,000 federal deposit thresholds and the $50,000 lookback figure are published; the $650 day, $75 lunch and $210 cabin night are invented to show where the tax lands. This page does not conclude that a Vermont guided trip is free of sales tax. It reports only that the department's own statement of the base is retail sales of tangible personal property, and Vermont's enumerated services, its regulations and any ruling on guiding were not researched at all. Nothing here concludes that a shore lunch is taxable in any particular case either; the transit exemption is quoted as written and no other provision was searched for. Whether a specific lodging arrangement meets the definition of a hotel, and whether a youth programme is a summer camp for children, are questions of fact not decided here. No federal tax is computed and no Vermont income tax appears on this page at all. Nothing is said about guide licensing in Vermont or about federal credentialing. Verify the current treatment of your own trips, meals and lodging with the department, and with your city if you operate in Burlington or Rutland, and take proper advice before pricing any of it in.
How this was checked
The Vermont sales tax material comes from the Vermont Department of Taxes, Sales and Use Tax, at tax.vermont.gov/business/sales-and-use-tax, read 27 July 2026. Taken from it: that Vermont sales tax is charged on the retail sales of tangible personal property unless exempted by law, that the rate is 6 percent, and that use tax is imposed on the buyer at the same rate; that out-of-state vendors making sales in Vermont must register and collect sales tax if they made sales of at least $100,000 or 200 individual transactions during any preceding twelve-month period; that the department determines the filing frequency for each taxpayer; that monthly filers must pay by the 25th day of the following month, with June due by 25 July; and that electronic filing is required for multiple locations, for local option collectors, and where the prior calendar year's remittance exceeded $100,000. The inference that a guided day sits outside that base is this page's reading of the quoted sentence and is flagged as such in the text and in the notice above; Vermont's enumerated services and regulations were not read.
The meals and rooms material comes from Meals and Rooms Tax: Getting Started, at tax.vermont.gov/business/meals-and-rooms-tax/getting-started, read the same day. Taken from it: that the Vermont meals and rooms tax is 9 percent and the alcoholic beverage tax is 10 percent; that businesses must register for a business tax account and a meals and rooms tax licence before collecting, that registration and the licence are free, and that the licence must be displayed at the place of business where it can be easily seen by customers; that an operator with more than one location has one business tax account but each location must obtain its own licence and file its own schedule; that any meal offered for sale by a restaurant or room offered for sale by a hotel is subject to tax, and that a room offered in your home or any kind of privately owned lodging is caught if the rental falls within the guidelines for a hotel; that all food and beverage are taxable when sold by restaurants, and that when sold by non-restaurants non-pre-packaged foods are taxable, the examples given being sandwiches other than frozen, heated food or beverages, salad bar items, and party platters and prepared food; that groceries are not taxable, being generally food sold not for immediate consumption but intended for consumption later off the seller's premises, and the exempt lists covering self-serve bulk items and grocery-type takeaway items including single serving bakery items sold in quantities of three or more; and the rounding rule requiring computation to the third decimal place and rounding up to the next cent whenever that place is greater than four, with sellers able to elect an item or invoice basis.
On the exemptions and disclosure, from the same page: that meals are sold tax free when furnished by any person while transporting passengers for hire by train, bus, or airplane, if furnished on any train, bus, or airplane, and that meals are sold tax free when furnished by any person while operating a summer camp for children, in such camp; that meals and beverages are exempt when purchased for resale on production of the state's meals tax exemption certificate for purchases of meals for resale, that the subsequent sale is taxable, that certificates must be received at the time of sale and be signed, dated and complete, and that they must be retained for at least three years from the date of the last sale covered; that the responsibility is on the seller to verify the buyer will resell the meals, and that a seller accepting a certificate with no reasonable expectation of resale will be responsible for the meals tax not collected; that a sale of an alcoholic beverage could be subject to the 6 percent sales and use tax or the 10 percent alcoholic beverage tax but never both, with the test being immediate consumption and sealed containers for off-premises consumption falling under sales tax, and that the nonprofit, school and government exemptions do not apply to alcoholic beverages; that businesses must give notice when the tax is included in pricing, by a sign customers may view or a statement on the menu, price list, bill, invoice, statement or receipt, and must provide an itemised bill on request; that a 1 percent local option meals or rooms tax applies in some municipalities; and that the City of Burlington and the City of Rutland administer and collect their own local meals, entertainment, lodging or alcoholic beverage taxes, with businesses directed to contact the city.
The federal material comes from Internal Revenue Service Topic no. 757, Forms 941 and 944 deposit requirements, at irs.gov/taxtopics/tc757, read 27 July 2026. Taken from it: that the deposit schedule depends on employment taxes reported during a lookback period, being for a quarterly filer the twelve months starting 1 July of the second preceding year and ending 30 June of the prior year; that reporting $50,000 or less in that period makes an employer a monthly schedule depositor and more than $50,000 makes them semiweekly, and that the terms identify which deposit rules apply rather than how often anyone is paid; that a monthly depositor generally deposits on payments made in a month by the 15th day of the following month; the semiweekly schedule under which a Wednesday, Thursday or Friday payday deposits by the following Wednesday and a Saturday, Sunday, Monday or Tuesday payday by the following Friday, with at least three business days allowed after the close of a semiweekly period; that a liability under $2,500 for the preceding or current quarter may be paid with a timely filed return rather than deposited, provided no next-day obligation arises; that accumulating $100,000 or more of taxes on any day requires a deposit by the next business day and makes the employer semiweekly for the remainder of that calendar year and the following one; that a new employer has a lookback of zero and is therefore monthly in the first year unless the next-day rule applies; that all deposits must be made by electronic funds transfer and must be scheduled by 8pm Eastern the day before the due date to be timely, with a Treasury same-day service available if arranged in advance with a financial institution; and that 100 percent of the liability must be deposited, with penalties for depositing late, depositing short, or mailing payments instead of depositing.
What is arithmetic or commentary rather than quotation. The $6.75, $18.90, $25.65 and $28.50 figures and the 2.74 percent effective rate are this page's own calculations on an invented $935 package. The observation that the transit exemption names three conveyances and not a boat is a reading of the quoted provision, and the surrounding commentary explicitly does not conclude that a shore lunch is taxable. The framing of the state and federal halves as two versions of holding somebody else's money is mine.
The labour figures come from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Economy at a Glance: Vermont, data extracted 22 July 2026, seasonally adjusted, June 2026 preliminary. Total nonfarm falling 311.8 to 310.6 thousand with twelve-month changes of minus 0.7, minus 0.4, minus 0.4, minus 0.3, 0.0 and minus 0.2 percent; the civilian labour force falling 345.4 to 338.8 thousand; household employment falling 336.2 to 330.0 thousand; unemployment 9.2 to 8.8 thousand; the rate at 2.7 percent then 2.6 for five months; leisure and hospitality twelve-month changes of 1.4, 2.8, 2.0, 2.0, minus 0.6 and minus 1.1 percent with the level falling 36.1 to 34.7 thousand jobs; professional and business services at minus 2.4 percent after minus 3.9 in May; trade, transportation and utilities at minus 1.4 percent; and mining and logging at plus 12.5 percent on a base of 0.9 thousand jobs are read directly off that table. The descriptions of Vermont as among the smallest labour markets covered and as the first with a payroll reading below the prior year for most of the half are comparisons against state tables already read for these pages, not BLS statements, and the characterisation of the mining figure as a rounding artefact is my own. The Vermont table reports no occupational earnings for fishing guides.
If you guide in Vermont and your phone is quieter than your fishing, I’ll build you a free preview of your booking site before you pay a cent.
Get a free website previewTwo statutes, and where a guide crosses between them
Does Vermont charge sales tax on a guided trip?
The department states its base as the retail sales of tangible personal property, unless exempted by law, at 6 percent. A day of guiding is a service rather than property, so it does not fall within that sentence. This page stops there deliberately: Vermont's enumerated services, its regulations and any ruling on guiding were not researched, so nothing here concludes the trip is free of tax in a particular case.
Where does a guide actually meet a tax then?
At the lunch and the bunk. Meals and rooms tax is a separate statute at 9 percent, with alcohol for immediate consumption at 10. Food sold by a non-restaurant is taxable whenever it is not pre-packaged, and the published examples are sandwiches other than frozen, heated food or beverages, salad bar items, and prepared food. A shore lunch is prepared food sold by a non-restaurant.
Is there an exemption for meals served on a trip?
There is one that comes close and does not name boats. Meals are sold tax free when furnished by any person while transporting passengers for hire by train, bus, or airplane, if furnished on that conveyance. A charter boat carrying paying anglers is transporting passengers for hire in every ordinary sense and is not on the list. No other provision was searched for, so this is the exemption read as written, not a conclusion.
What if I rent out a cabin or a spare room?
You may be running a hotel for these purposes. Any room offered for sale by a hotel is taxable, and the department says directly that if you offer a room in your home, or any kind of privately owned lodging, and the rental falls within the guidelines for a hotel, you must collect and remit rooms tax. Whether a specific arrangement meets that definition is a question of fact this page does not decide.
What does registration involve?
A business tax account and a meals and rooms tax licence, both free, both before you collect anything. The licence must be displayed at the place of business where customers can easily see it, which makes display part of the requirement rather than a formality. An operator with more than one location keeps a single account but each location needs its own licence and files its own schedule.
Can I quote one price with the tax inside?
Yes, but you have to say so. Where the meals and rooms tax or the alcoholic beverage tax is included in pricing, you must either display a sign customers may view or make a statement on the menu, price list, bill, invoice, statement or receipt. You must also provide an itemised bill on request. Guides quote a single day rate by habit, which is exactly the situation the notice rule was written for.
Anything different about Burlington?
Yes, and it is the charter town on Lake Champlain, so it matters here. Most local option towns add 1 percent collected by the state with everything else. Burlington and Rutland City administer and collect their own local meals, entertainment, lodging and alcoholic beverage taxes, and a business in either is directed to contact the city rather than the department. That is a second remitting relationship, not a higher rate.
What is the market doing?
Contracting, and it was the first state covered where payroll employment sat below the prior year for most of the half. Total nonfarm fell from 311.8 thousand jobs to 310.6. Leisure and hospitality turned over mid-season, from plus 2.8 percent in February to minus 1.1 in June, with the level down from 36.1 thousand to 34.7. The 2.6 percent unemployment rate reflects a shrinking labour force rather than hiring.
Sources & methods
- Sales and Use Tax, and Meals and Rooms Tax: Getting Started, read 27 July 2026 (Vermont Department of Taxes)
- Topic no. 757, Forms 941 and 944 deposit requirements, read 27 July 2026 (Internal Revenue Service)
- Economy at a Glance: Vermont, data extracted 22 July 2026 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)
Every figure here is traced to a named public source and checked against it. Licensing, tax, and fee rules change. Verify your state’s current rules with the agency directly before you count on any number here.
Evan Knox
I build booking websites and run the ads and search for owner-run fishing guides, one operation per stretch of water. My first guide client, Bowman Fly Fishing, grew its revenue 4x in a year from that work. Field Notes is where I put the straight numbers on the business of guiding.
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I'm Evan, and I work the part of guiding that keeps a short season and a small market working harder: booking sites, plus the search and ads that put good guides in front of anglers, with published pricing and one operation per stretch of water. If you run Champlain, the Battenkill or the hard water and want more days sold direct, text me at (470) 777-9686 and I'll put a free preview together before any money moves.