Georgia bill would require retailers to round cash transactions to nearest nickel

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) -A Georgia bill would require businesses statewide to round cash transactions to the nearest nickel, following a banks and banking committee hearing on the measure.

The bill comes as cash use continues to decline. According to Federal Reserve Financial Services, cash accounted for 14% of U.S. payments — less than half of both credit and debit card payments. The recent elimination of the penny also factored into the committee’s consideration of the bill.

How rounding would work

Under the proposed legislation, businesses would round down any transaction ending in 1, 2, 6 or 7 cents, and round up for transactions ending in 3, 4, 8 or 9 cents.

State Rep. Carter Barrett, R-District 24, said the federal government has not acted on the issue, leaving it to individual states.

“The federal government has not issued, they have not taken action on this themselves, and they’ve kinda left it to the states so what we’re trying to do is get aligned with other states around us for convenience and clarity for retailers around us,” Barrett said.

Other states already acting

Florida is among the states neighboring Georgia that already has a similar law in place. A committee member noted that some Georgia stores are already following the practice voluntarily. That member also raised questions about the ethics of the policy and how to keep stores accountable for not rounding up unnecessarily.