Register with the Vermont Department of Taxes filling out form S-1. Upon registration, they will provide the schedule and mechanisms for remitting the sales tax. You can find the registration application on the internet.

Yes, ticket sellers collect the tax when selling tickets for performances.

Ticket sellers remit the tax to the State. They should not pass the tax revenue to the presenter.

When remitting the sales tax, the ticket seller provides sales information.

The presenter must account for the value of ticket sales by the ticket seller in order to determine the exemption status for next year’s performances.

There is no definition of “performance” in Vermont law. Therefore, the Department of Taxes uses the general definition of performance to include any event where live performers provide entertainment to an audience admitted to a place. Sporting events are considered performances for the purpose of the sales tax exemption to nonprofits. Movie presentations are not considered performances for the purpose of the sales tax exemption to nonprofits.

A demolition derby is considered a performance. Performances may include the use of machines, vehicles or animals (e.g. horse racing) in the control of humans.

There is no difference between a performance and sporting event for the purpose of the sales tax. Tickets sold for a cheerleading competition are subject to the sales tax unless the presenter is exempt as described in Technical Bulletin #61 from the Department of Taxes. This technical bulletin is available on the internet. 

When events are combined, the total price can be separately stated and tax collected on the performance, only.  For example, joint admission to a fair and a concert may require a $50 ticket. The ticket may indicate that $10 of the admission is to the fair. Nonprofit organizations are allowed to sell admission to amusements without performances and not collect a sales tax regardless of the volume of sales to those amusements in the past year. The sales tax will be computed using the $40 price for the concert. This allocation must reflect admission prices consistent with the taxable and non taxable events when charged separately.

One of the details of Act 160 is to provide an extended exemption in the case when a performance “arises out of a written contract offer, or contract entered into, after December 31, 2009, and before June 1, 2010.” If your organization has a performance and you have a written contract offered during that time period in the first five months of 2010, the tickets are not subject to sales tax.