Month: June 2018

Current state weight-based taxes on marijuana bud or flower, per gram (and retail rates):

Alaska $1.76 (No retail tax).
California 33 cents (15% retail tax).
Colorado 34 cents (15% retail tax).
Nevada 75 cents (10% retail tax).

Math and methodology are at https://newrevenue.org/2017/07/02/nevadas-70-cent-per-gram-tax-on-marijuana-flower/.

Alaska statute says $50 per ounce.
California statute says $9.25 per ounce.
CO data is from from https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/sites/default/files/AverageMarketRate.pdf; NV data is from , up from 70 cents: https://newrevenue.org/2017/07/02/nevadas-70-cent-per-gram-tax-on-marijuana-flower/.

Email to Erika McConnell, Director of the Alaska Alcohol and Marijuana Control Office

Dear Ms. McConnell:

The cannabis industry naturally wants to repeal the weight-based, per-pound tax you have in Alaska. http://komonews.com/news/local/alaskas-legal-pot-industry-decries-taxes-seeks-changes

The state and the people have interests that conflict with those of the industry. Continue reading “Center for New Revenue opposes repeal of per-ounce marijuana tax in Alaska”

Marijuana Revenue Competition — Look Out Below

Exclusive license with State Tax Notes expired, so here is  the article: Tax Competition FINAL STN 5.7.18 Oglesby, from State Tax Notes, Vol. 88, No. 6, 2018.

Abstract

Beyond the ever-present illegal market, a more subtle threat to marijuana revenue lurks:

Tax competitors (think: tax havens) threaten subnational jurisdictions that can’t or don’t control their borders.

This article presents a framework for looking at threats to marijuana revenue: Continue reading “Marijuana Revenue Competition — Look Out Below — in State Tax Notes”

[UPDATE January 2019:  Yes, the chart is pretty good, but there are a few errors.  To be sure, check original sources.]

This is the best comparative chart on cannabis taxes I’ve seen, from Fox Rothschild, an 800-person law firm.  [UPDATED chart is here:  https://www.foxrothschild.com/publications/cannabis-industry-state-tax-guide/.]  The big accounting firms were still steering clear of marijuana, last I heard, and this is the biggest law firm I’ve heard of that’s been publicly associated with marijuana.

UPDATE:  I don’t intend faint praise for this work.  It’s a huge undertaking, and a valuable one.  Thanks to Jennifer Benda and Jacob Millis for doing it.  I want to be an expert on marijuana taxes, but didn’t have the patience for this big job.  This kind of exhaustive scholarship illuminates the landscape, as Alvin Rabushka did with Taxation in Colonial America.

In 2011, I could fit all the world’s marijuana taxes onto page 257 of this.  But there is more work to be done.   Now, there are hundreds of local taxes in California and Oregon alone — like Arcata’s electricity tax.  Local fees could fill a book already. Continue reading “CNR recommends cannabis tax chart”