Vermont Landlord Certificate: New Property Data Fields for 2026 Filing

The Landlord Certificate is what lets a tenant claim Vermont's renter tax credit; the landlord's filing gives the Department of Taxes and the tenant the documentation needed to support that claim.

[Cite: 32 V.S.A. 6069, as amended by Act 69 (S.127), Secs. 7-8, 2025 Vt. Acts]

That underlying purpose explains why the certificate's content keeps expanding; each new field gives the state better data on Vermont's rental housing stock, beyond just the rent amount needed for the tax credit calculation itself.

The certificate now has to include the landlord's phone number, email address, and mailing address, as available.

[Cite: 32 V.S.A. 6069]

That "as available" qualifier matters; a landlord isn't required to obtain contact information they genuinely don't have, but a landlord who does have a working phone number or email address on file for their own business has to include it rather than leaving the field blank by default.

The certificate now separately requires the unit's location within the rental property and the unit type.

[Cite: 32 V.S.A. 6069]

A landlord with multiple units at a single address, say, a triplex, now has to distinguish those units clearly on the certificate rather than filing one generic entry for the whole property; the unit type field adds a further layer of specificity about what kind of unit each tenant actually occupied.

The certificate now also asks for the total number of rental units in the building, not just details about the specific unit a tenant occupied.

[Cite: 32 V.S.A. 6069]

That building-wide count gives the state a clearer picture of the property's overall rental capacity; a landlord filing certificates for multiple tenants in the same building should make sure this total count is filled in consistently across every certificate tied to that property.

The certificate's new accessibility field asks for the ADA accessibility of the rental unit, based on the landlord's own assessment.

[Cite: 32 V.S.A. 6069; Vermont Department of Taxes, Landlord Certificate guidance]

That "landlord's own assessment" framing means this isn't asking for a certified inspection or professional accessibility audit; a landlord reports their own good-faith understanding of whether the unit meets ADA accessibility standards, based on what they already know about the property.

Since the certificate reports on the prior calendar year's rentals and the amendment took effect July 1, 2025, the first certificate actually using these expanded fields is the one covering 2025 rentals, due by January 31, 2026.

[Cite: 32 V.S.A. 6069; Vermont Department of Taxes, Landlord Certificate guidance, 2025 tax year]

A landlord who already filed a certificate for 2024 rentals before July 2025 didn't need these new fields on that filing; the expanded requirements apply starting with the certificate landlords will file in January 2026 for the 2025 rental year, which resolves any uncertainty about when this actually first shows up on a real filing.

A landlord who knowingly fails to file the certificate faces a $200 penalty per violation.

[Cite: 32 V.S.A. 6069]

That per-violation structure means a landlord managing several rental units, each requiring its own certificate, faces that penalty on a per-certificate basis; treating each unit's filing as a separate compliance obligation, rather than one blanket filing for an entire property, keeps that exposure from compounding unnecessarily.

Landlords with 5 or fewer tenants can file the paper LRC-140 form, while landlords with more than 5 tenants have to file online through myVTax.

[Cite: Vermont Department of Taxes, Landlord Certificate guidance]

A property manager handling a larger portfolio should confirm which filing method applies based on tenant count, since the paper form option simply isn't available once that threshold is crossed; this matters especially now, with more data fields to enter per certificate than before.

Vermont's Landlord Certificate form changes each year, and using an outdated version risks submitting a certificate that's missing the fields this amendment actually requires.

[Cite: Vermont Department of Taxes, Landlord Certificate guidance]

A landlord who saved a prior year's blank LRC-140 template for convenience should specifically confirm they're using the version matching the tax year being reported, since the form used for 2025 rentals is the first to include these new fields and won't match an older saved template.

This certificate amendment comes from the same bill, S.127, Act 69, that also removed the Social Security number requirement from rental applications and added citizenship and immigration status as a protected fair housing category.

[Cite: Act 69 (S.127), 2025 Vt. Acts, Secs. 7-8, 10-13]

A Vermont landlord reviewing this certificate change should recognize it as part of a broader 2025 legislative package touching several areas of landlord-tenant compliance at once, rather than an isolated, standalone update.

The practical starting point is confirming, well before the January 31, 2026 deadline, that current landlord contact information, phone, email, and mailing address, is accurate and ready to enter on the certificate for every property.

For each rental unit, gathering the unit type, building-wide unit count, and a good-faith assessment of ADA accessibility ahead of filing season avoids a last-minute scramble to pull that information together property by property.