Starting January 1, 2026, the Richmond plastic bag tax adds a 5-cent charge to every disposable plastic bag handed out at grocery stores, convenience stores, and drugstores inside the city.1Virginia Department of Taxation. Plastic Bag Tax Effective in Richmond City on Jan. 1, 2026 The fee is charged per bag, not per trip, and it shows up as a separate line on your receipt. Richmond is using an option Virginia law gives localities to adopt the tax by ordinance.2Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 58.1-1745 – Disposable Plastic Bag Tax
What You’ll Pay at Checkout
Five cents per disposable plastic bag. Ten bags of groceries, 50 cents. The charge applies whether or not the store previously handed those bags out for free. Bringing a reusable bag, a paper bag, or a cloth tote avoids the fee entirely, since the tax applies only to disposable plastic bags given at checkout.
Which Bags Are Free
Not every plastic bag triggers the charge. Virginia law exempts four categories outright:3Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 58.1-1746 – Exemptions
- Reusable plastic bags with handles, at least four mils thick, designed for multiple uses.
- Bags used to wrap or contain meat, fish, poultry, produce, ice cream, unwrapped bulk food, or other perishable items. The roll of bags in the produce section and the one at the meat counter stay free.
- Bags used for dry-cleaned garments or for prescription medications from a pharmacy.
- Garbage bags, pet waste bags, and leaf removal bags sold in multi-packs for home use.
The common thread: the tax targets the thin bags you carry purchases home in, not bags that serve a food-safety, pharmacy, or household function.
Which Stores Have to Charge It
Three types of retailers collect the tax: grocery stores, convenience stores, and drugstores.2Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 58.1-1745 – Disposable Plastic Bag Tax Virginia law defines a grocery store as a permanent establishment selling food and ingredients commonly used in meal preparation, a convenience store as a permanent retailer stocking the kind of edible items normally sold in grocery stores, and a drugstore as a shop that fills prescriptions and sells medicines and general household items.
Size doesn’t change the rule. A corner market and a national chain supermarket both charge 5 cents. Large retailers that include a grocery, convenience, or drug store section must collect the tax on all taxable plastic bags they hand out, regardless of what the customer is actually buying. Picking up a lamp at a big-box store with a grocery department still means paying the bag fee if the item leaves in a disposable plastic bag.
Clothing stores, hardware stores, bookstores, and other retailers outside those three categories are not covered.
Where the Money Goes
Richmond can’t put bag tax revenue into the general fund. Virginia law restricts spending to four purposes:2Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 58.1-1745 – Disposable Plastic Bag Tax
- Environmental cleanup, including removing litter and plastic waste from waterways, parks, and public spaces.
- Education programs aimed at reducing environmental waste and single-use plastic.
- Broader pollution and litter mitigation.
- Free reusable bags for residents receiving SNAP and WIC nutrition assistance.
The last category is the law’s answer to an obvious equity concern. A nickel per bag is a rounding error for most shoppers, but weekly trips with multiple bags add up for a household stretching food assistance. Distributing durable bags to SNAP and WIC recipients is meant to keep the fee from falling harder on low-income families.
How Retailers Collect and File
The Virginia Department of Taxation administers the bag tax, not Richmond’s finance office. Retailers report it on the same return they already use for sales and use tax, with the bag tax appearing as an additional field. Returns are due by the 20th of the month after the reporting period, so bags handed out in January 2026 must be reported and paid by February 20, 2026.4RVA.gov. Disposable Plastic Bag Tax Filing is available electronically through the Virginia Tax online portal or by paper return.
Retailers don’t forward the full nickel. Because Richmond is adopting the tax after January 1, 2023, dealers keep 1 cent per bag and remit the remaining 4 cents.5Virginia Department of Taxation. Rulings of the Tax Commissioner 21-117 That discount only applies to timely returns. File late and the retailer owes the full 5 cents per bag with no offset.
On top of losing the discount, late payment carries interest. Virginia allows localities to charge up to 10 percent per year on delinquent local taxes, starting as early as the day after the due date, with a higher rate possible in later years of delinquency.6Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 58.1-3916 – Counties, Cities, and Towns May Provide Dates for Filing Returns and Set Penalties, Interest, Etc For a store distributing a few hundred bags a month the individual numbers are small, but the compounding, combined with the forfeited penny per bag, makes it cheaper to add the line to the existing sales tax return on time than to deal with it later.