Cannabis tax study passes state Senate committee

 Marijuana News
May 072011
 

State lawmakers Wednesday took a step toward possibly licensing and taxing medical marijuana sales in California, despite objections that such sales are not sanctioned by federal law. A bill that would have the state Board of Equalization study ways to tax and license the sale of medical marijuana was approved by the Senate Governance and Finance Committee on a 5-2 vote, the Los Angeles Times reports. Sen. Ron Calderon (D-Montebello), author of SB 626, said the cash-strapped state was missing out on potentially tens of millions of dollars from the sales. “There is a real [...]

L.A. voters pass tax on cannabis dispensaries

 Dispensaries, Marijuana News
Mar 102011
 

As the city council in California’s largest city seeks to shutter scores of medical marijuana dispensaries, Los Angeles voters just issued a resounding declaration: If you can’t close ‘em, tax ‘em. Fifty-nine percent of voters approved Los Angeles’ “‘M’ for marijuana” Measure M, allowing the city to impose a 5 percent tax on gross dispensary receipts — on top of sales taxes they must pay to the state, Peter Hecht reports in the Sacramento Bee. Los Angeles Times election coverage While pot taxes have been endorsed by many dispensaries and medical marijuana advocates as a [...]

L.A. collectives campaign against dispensary tax

 Dispensaries, Marijuana News
Mar 072011
 

When Oakland’s voters slapped the nation’s first tax on marijuana sales a year and a half ago, the city’s dispensaries backed the ballot measure, pushing it as a way to be seen as legitimate businesses. And when voters in 10 California cities decided on pot taxes in November, the elections were largely uncontroversial. The taxes all passed by more than two-thirds, John Hoeffel reports in the Los Angeles Times. But in Los Angeles, where voters decide Tuesday whether to create a pot tax, medical marijuana activists who once urged City Hall to tax and regulate [...]

Some San Jose collectives wary of paying city tax

 Dispensaries, Ordinances
Mar 012011
 

Some owners of medical marijuana shops operating in San Jose are concerned that paying the city’s new marijuana business tax would be an admission to breaking state and federal laws and could land them behind bars. About 100 people attended a workshop Monday morning at City Hall to learn exactly how San Jose’s new marijuana business tax will work, Mark Gomez reports in the San Jose Mercury News. Starting Tuesday, San Jose will enforce a 7 percent tax on marijuana dispensaries under a measure voters overwhelmingly approved in November. But some of San Jose’s pot [...]

San Jose gearing up for cannabis dispensary taxes

 Dispensaries, Marijuana News
Feb 272011
 

San Jose still considers all of the city’s 100 or so medical marijuana shops to be unlawful nuisances, but officials will welcome the pot providers to City Hall Monday to talk about a new program of great interest to the broke city: a marijuana tax. Starting Tuesday, San Jose will slap a 7 percent tax on marijuana dispensaries under a measure voters overwhelmingly approved in November, John Woolfolk reports in the San Jose Mercury News. The city — which has emerged as a key battleground in the state’s “green wars” over medical marijuana regulation — [...]

Measure M gives L.A. voters choice on cannabis tax

 Dispensaries, Marijuana News
Feb 262011
 

Los Angeles voters will face a familiar, burning issue on the March 8 city ballot: Marijuana. In contrast with November’s failed California proposition to legalize recreational pot use, the more complicated Measure M asks if the city should impose a hefty tax on medical marijuana dispensaries. Proponents say requiring dispensary operators to “pay their fair share” — in this case, 5 percent of gross receipts — could raise $10 million a year for the city’s deficit-plagued general fund, Kevin Modesti reports in the Los Angeles Daily News. Opponents claim the proposal won’t fly because medicine [...]

State tax board to dispensaries: Pay up

 Dispensaries, Marijuana News
Feb 252011
 

The state Board of Equalization wants to make it perfectly clear: Pay sales taxes on marijuana or risk prosecution. “The sale of medical marijuana is not exempt from sales tax,” said board Chairman Jerome E. Horton. Nor do illegal sales exempt people from paying taxes, he said. That’s not new, but the board has launched a new effort to clarify regulations, both for its own employees and medical pot distributors, Glenda Anderson reports in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. The clarification, combined with a crackdown on dispensaries that have not been paying sales taxes, could [...]

Facing IRS audit, Harborside seeks tax code change

 Marijuana Law, Medical marijuana
Feb 192011
 

Harborside Health Center proclaims itself the world’s largest marijuana dispensary. For certain, it is California’s most ambitious – a holistic care center with a naturopathic physician, acupuncturist, chiropractor, yoga instructors and therapists in “universal life force energy.” Its Oakland facility handles $22 million in annual medical marijuana transactions. Now Harborside is attracting scrutiny from the Internal Revenue Service, Peter Hecht reports in the Sacramento Bee. Since last year, the IRS has been auditing 2008 and 2009 federal tax returns for the Oakland location, one of two outlets Harborside operates for 70,000 medical marijuana users. The [...]

Bud’s Blog: Resolve to take the CalPotNews tax survey

 Bud's Blog
Jan 032011
 

Dear friends: I hope you had a happy new year and all that jazz … now take my tax survey. Please. It’s not like there’s anything else going on right now, give or take a few lawsuits, dispensary raids, bans, bans and more bans. The election is over, and the headlines are few and far between. News is cyclical that way, so medical cannabis patients in Oakland, Los Angeles, San Jose, Fresno, Orange County — and the list goes on — are facing huge challenges without getting much attention (or support) statewide. If you haven’t [...]

IRS rule could impact dispensary tax deductions

 Dispensaries, Marijuana News
Dec 142010
 

In an ominous portent of the clash between federal and state law over medical marijuana, the IRS is auditing the Bay Area’s largest medical pot dispensary, Harborside Health Center, The Bay Citizen has learned. Steve DeAngelo, executive director of Harborside, said in an interview today that the IRS initiated the audit a few months ago and it has not finished. DeAngelo said he wasn’t worried about opening the dispensary’s books, saying, “Our whole model is being compliant and transparent; I don’t have anything to hide from the IRS.” An IRS spokesman said the agency doesn’t [...]

 Older Entries  Newer Entries