The Vermont Statutes Online
The Statutes below include the actions of the 2025 session of the General Assembly.
NOTE: The Vermont Statutes Online is an unofficial copy of the Vermont Statutes Annotated that is provided as a convenience.
Subchapter
001
:
GENERAL COOPERATIVE CORPORATIONS
(Cite as: 11 V.S.A. § 981)
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§ 981. General cooperative corporation; use of “cooperative.”
A corporation formed under Title 11A shall not have the word “cooperative” or any
abbreviation thereof as part of its name, unless the corporation is a worker cooperative
corporation organized under chapter 8 of this title, a cooperative housing corporation
organized under chapter 14 of this title, or a general cooperative corporation that
includes in its articles of incorporation the following provisions:
(1) Each shareholder shall have only one vote in all matters pertaining to the management
of the corporation.
(2) The interest or dividend on the paid up capital stock of the corporation shall not
exceed six percent per annum.
(3) There shall be set aside annually not less than ten percent of the net profits of
the corporation for a reserve fund until there is accumulated a fund of not less than
50 percent of the paid up capital stock.
(4) The remainder of the earnings, or any part thereof, shall be distributed by a uniform
dividend upon the amount of purchases or sales through the corporation by the shareholders,
or the amount of raw material furnished to, or business done through, the corporation
by the shareholders; and such profits or earnings shall be distributed as often as
once in 12 months.
(5) Not more than ten percent of the capital stock of such corporation shall be owned
by any one member.
(6) Certificates of stock in cooperative corporations shall contain a statement on the
face thereof that the holder is entitled to only one vote thereon. (Amended 1985, No. 46, § 3; 1987, No. 254 (Adj. Sess.), § 3, eff. June 16, 1988; 2023, No. 85 (Adj. Sess.), § 12, eff. July 1, 2024; 2025, No. 10, § 3, eff. July 1, 2025.)