Vail whips up NH-only ski pass after Ayotte’s threats

Faced with legal threats from New Hampshire, Vail Resorts says it will no longer charge sales tax to Granite Staters who want to buy its multi-resort Epic Pass.

Well, sort of.

In response to pressure from Gov. Kelly Ayotte and the state attorney general’s office, the Colorado-based company said customers in New Hampshire will be able to buy a truncated version of its Northeast Value Pass without paying the $21 in sales tax that was previously rolled into the overall price of $683.

How truncated is the tax-free version? It can only be used at Vail’s four resorts in New Hampshire: Crotched, Sunapee, Attitash and Wildcat.

If you want to go to the three Vail resorts in Vermont or the company’s 14 other resorts in the East (although it’s unclear why you’d travel to Maryland to ski), you’ll have to pay the sales tax. Same for its Epic Pass covering 42 resorts in four countries, which can cost over $1,000.

The issue came up last week, even as some legislators are pushing the idea of a state constitutional amendment to ban a sales tax, when Ayotte issued a statement attacking Vail’s plan to “blend” sales tax into Epic Pass prices.

Vail quickly announced the New Hampshire-only version of the pass.

“New Hampshire will never have a sales tax, and we certainly will not let an out-of-state company try to sneak one in,” she said in a statement, adding that the attorney general will continue to investigate.

The ski and snowboard industry has sold season passes to individual resorts for decades, enjoying the up-front cash and the fact that customers are assuming the risk of bad weather, but passes that grant access to multiple resorts are newer. They have become more popular in the past decade as the industry has consolidated: Others include the Ikon Pass from Alterra, the Indy Pass for independent ski areas and the Mountain Collective pass, mostly for areas out West and in Canada.

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