For the past year, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has directed its attention to the cannabis industry– in a helpful way! This includes promulgation of cannabis tax guidelines as well as webinars and public forums dedicated to tax compliance for marijuana businesses (together, the “Guidelines”). The stated IRS goal here is “to positively impact filing
California cannabis taxes continue to plague the industry. California cannabis taxes are undoubtedly high (although not the highest in the country). The truth is that that’s not changing anytime soon. A few weeks ago, I did an interview with KCRW where operators bemoaned the current California cannabis tax situation. Their complaints are warranted given the
Here is a scare article published last week in Portland’s Willamette Week. I like that publication pretty well, but the article makes a trio of tax-related assertions which strike me as wrong. In the author’s defense, suspect cannabis tax reportage is an industry pastime and the narrative of fiscally oppressed cannabis stores is attractive. Consider
Translations for this blog post can be found below: Chinese/中文 French/ Français German/ Deutsche Spanish/ Español I work with international cannabis companies outside the U.S. and regularly field inquiries from others who want to enter the U.S. market or are already selling into the U.S. market through an intermediary like a broker or a sales
This is the season of the year where cannabis business owners start to take a hard look at their end of year finances to decipher how profitable the company has been and whether and how their employees and other key personnel should share in that profit alongside the owners. Some marijuana and hemp employers do
Recently, I mentioned that except for Champ v. Commissioner, no cannabis company has ever won an Internal Revenue Code § 280E case. One of the more famous setbacks was a 2018 case known as Harborside v. Commissioner, which expressly found IRC § 280E constitutional. That decision started with the memorable line that: “[Harborside] owns what
One of the most fundamental questions facing any businessperson in the cannabis industry and every other industry is: “What type of business entity should I use?” This is such a loaded question that your lawyer or accountant will first respond with, “That depends,” and then they will need to ask you at least ten follow-up
On December 20th, U.S. Tax Court issued its opinion in Alternative Health Care Advocates et al. v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue. The long opinion details various issues related to the specific case, but we will concentrate on one relatively small piece of it. How would the Tax Court treat income paid from a marijuana retailer
Today let’s talk about Matthew Price, the Oregon marijuana businessman headed to jail for tax crimes. This story got a lot of coverage when it broke last month, partly because it was the first known tax-related prosecution for a licensed pot business owner, and partly because Price was fairly well known in Oregon. He once
In California, the first Cannabis Tax Return is due on April 30, 2018 and many of our clients are now working through the issues related to the Cannabis Cultivation and Excise Tax. In addition, many marijuana businesses must file their first 2018 estimated federal tax payment by April 17, 2018. To estimate taxable income, every
