Vail Resorts Under Investigation by New Hampshire for Charging Sales Tax
New Hampshire has opened an investigation into the mountain conglomerate Vail Resorts for tacking sales taxes onto multi-resort ski passes.
Like only a few other states in the US, New Hampshire doesn't have a sales tax, but in a statement, the Office of the Governor said that Vail Resorts had recently announced plans to charge a sales tax on its multi-resort passes, including those sold in New Hampshire.
"New Hampshire is proud to have no sales tax, and we're not going to let an out-of-state company try to sneak one in," said Governor Kelly Ayotte in a statement. "The Attorney General will thoroughly investigate Vail Resorts' attempt to charge a sales tax on Granite State skiers. We'll continue to ensure New Hampshire is America's best place to ski-sales tax-free."
Reached by POWDER, a spokesperson for Vail Resorts said the company is in touch with the Office of the Governor and Attorney General and values its relationship with "our New Hampshire guests and community."
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Vail Resorts owns multiple ski resorts across the country and around the world. It provides a slew of ski passes to access them, including the flagship Epic Pass and cheaper regional options that cover fewer mountains.
The company's spokesperson pointed out that Vail Resorts, which operates New Hampshire ski resorts like Wildcat Mountain and Crotched Mountain, doesn't charge taxes on lift tickets in the state.
But the spokesperson added that the Epic Pass and the regional Northeast Value Pass include access to ski resorts in taxing jurisdictions, so those passes are subject to taxes, as is legally required.
In the past, according to a Vail Resorts investor presentation from March, multi-resort pass buyers paid taxes as part of the base price rather than separately.
Now, the presentation explained, skiers who buy a multi-mountain pass from Vail Resorts will pay a "blended" tax rate of about 3% on top of that pass if it includes access to any resorts in a taxable jurisdiction.
The Northeast Value Pass, for instance, covers four New Hampshire resorts, but it also includes ski resorts in Vermont, where there is a sales tax. The pass costs $662 right now, plus a separate charge of about $21 in taxes.
That seems to be where New Hampshire's concern lies. A product like the Northeast Value Pass could, potentially, only get used by skiers at the Vail Resorts mountains in New Hampshire, but still require taxes to buy.
The Vail Resorts spokesperson said the company's products are priced "very competitively" even with the sales tax, and "provide more choice than other season passes with access to only New Hampshire resorts."
A somewhat comparable pass to the Northeast Value Pass, the White Mountain Super Pass, costs $1,375 with access to the New Hampshire ski resorts Bretton Woods, Cannon Mountain, Cranmore Mountain Resort, and Waterville Valley.
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This story was originally published April 28, 2026 at 3:25 PM.