Vermont Form WHT-436: Filing, Payment, and Corrections

Vermont Form WHT-436 is the quarterly return every registered Vermont withholding employer files to reconcile state income tax withheld, child care contributions, and health care contributions against the deposits already sent in. It is due by the 25th of the month after each calendar quarter closes, and you can file it through the free myVTax portal or on paper by mail to the Department of Taxes in Montpelier.¹

Who Files and When

If you are registered as a Vermont withholding employer, you file WHT-436 every quarter, regardless of whether your deposit schedule is quarterly, monthly, or semi-weekly.² That includes quarters where you paid no wages and withheld nothing. File the form with zeros so the Department knows the period was quiet.¹

The four due dates follow standard calendar quarters:¹

Q1 (January 1 – March 31): due April 25
Q2 (April 1 – June 30): due July 25
Q3 (July 1 – September 30): due October 25
Q4 (October 1 – December 31): due January 25

Monthly depositors pay the first two months of the quarter on their normal schedule and submit the third month’s payment with WHT-436. Quarterly depositors pay the full amount at filing.

What You Need Before You Start

Have your Federal Employer Identification Number and your Vermont Business Tax Account Number ready. The Vermont account is formatted as WHT followed by digits, for example WHT12345678.³ Pull your payroll records for the three months in the quarter: total Vermont wages paid, total Vermont income tax withheld, and any nonwage payments subject to withholding. If you owe a health care contribution, download Form HC-1 from the Department’s site to work out the amount.⁴

Filling Out the Five Parts

Part I: Wages and Withholding

Enter total Vermont wages paid during the quarter and total Vermont income tax withheld from those wages. These are quarterly totals, not a month-by-month split.¹ Check that your withholding figure matches the sum of pay-stub deductions in your payroll register; small gaps often come from rounding or a mid-quarter rate change.

Part II: Nonwage Payments

Report Vermont tax withheld from nonwage payments during the quarter. Nonwage payments include distributions on Form 1099-R (pensions, annuities, retirement plans, and insurance contracts) and amounts on Form 1099-MISC.¹ If you had none, enter zeros.

Part III: Child Care Contribution

The Child Care Contribution is a 0.44% payroll tax on all employee wages earned in Vermont. The employer owes the full amount, and you may choose to withhold up to 25% of it (roughly 0.11% of wages) from employee paychecks.⁵ The wage base tracks the federal definition under 26 U.S.C. § 3401. Remit the contribution on the same schedule you use for withholding deposits; Part III reconciles those deposits against the total owed for the quarter.¹

Part IV: Health Care Contribution

Complete the calculation on Form HC-1, then transfer the result into Part IV.¹ HC-1 travels with WHT-436 as a companion worksheet.

Part V: Total Payment Due

Part V adds the tax withheld from Parts I and II to the child care and health care amounts from Parts III and IV, then subtracts deposits you already remitted during the quarter.¹ If deposits fell short, pay the balance with the return. If you overpaid, use the field on the form to request a credit or refund.³

Filing and Paying

Any employer can file WHT-436 and pay a balance due through myVTax. You can key data in directly, or upload a file that follows the Department’s electronic filing specifications for larger payrolls. Submitting produces a confirmation number that serves as your proof of filing.²

Electronic filing is mandatory if any of the following apply to you:²

You submit 10 or more W-2 or 1099 forms with your annual reconciliation (Form WHT-434).
You deposit withholding on a semi-weekly schedule.
You use a payroll filing service.
Your total withholding remitted in the prior calendar year exceeded $100,000.

If you file on paper, mail the completed return to:¹

Vermont Department of Taxes
Taxpayer Services Division
PO Box 537
Montpelier, VT 05601-0547

Monthly and semi-weekly depositors remit payments electronically by ACH debit or ACH credit. Quarterly depositors typically pay any balance at the time of filing.¹

Fixing an Error After You File

If you spot a mistake later, submit an amended WHT-436. When filing electronically, set the Amended field to Y so the return is treated as a correction of the prior one.³ Fill in every line with the corrected figures for the whole quarter, not only the numbers that changed. The Department replaces the original filing with the amended version, so the return you send should read the way it should have the first time.

Catching a discrepancy before your annual reconciliation (Form WHT-434) is due is worth doing. The quarterly totals need to tie to the annual filing, and a mismatch is a common trigger for a Department notice.⁶

Late Filing and Underpayment Costs

The failure-to-file penalty is 5% of the unpaid tax for each month or partial month the return is late. The failure-to-pay penalty is also 5% per month for withholding tax. Both cap at 25% of the unpaid amount.⁷

Interest runs on top of penalties. Vermont sets the rate each December based on the prior 12 months’ average prime loan rate, rounded up to the nearest quarter percent. The underpayment interest rate for 2026 is 7.75%, and interest accrues from the original due date.⁸

1
Vermont Department of Taxes. Form WHT-436 Instructions
2
Vermont Department of Taxes. Withholding for Employers
3
Vermont Department of Taxes. Vermont Form WHT-436 Electronic Filing Specifications
4
Vermont Department of Taxes. 2025 Form WHT-436 and Form HC-1
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Vermont Department of Taxes. Child Care Contribution
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Vermont General Assembly. 32 V.S.A. 5842 – Return and Payment of Withheld Taxes
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Vermont General Assembly. Vermont Code 32-3202 – Interest and Penalties
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Vermont Department of Taxes. Interest Rates