Per-gram taxes on marijuana flower in Colorado have dropped over half, as prices collapse.
For July to September 2018, here are the new producer tax rates for seven categories of marijuana not sold to third parties in Colorado.
Flower: AMR (Average Market Rate) = $846 per pound.
Tax = $126.90 per pound, or approximately $0.28 per gram.
[The highest AMR for flower was $2,007, in the early days, yielding a tax of $301.05 per pound, or $0.66 per gram.]
Trim: AMR = $404 per pound
Tax = $60.60 per pound, or approximately $0.13 per gram.
Wet whole plants: AMR= $150 per pound.
Tax = $22.50 per pound, or approximately $0.05 per gram.
Immature plants: AMR = $1.
Tax = $0.15
Seeds: AMR = $5.
Tax = $0.75.
Trim allocated for extraction: AMR= $300 per pound.
Tax = $45 per pound, or approximately $0.10 per gram.
Bud allocated for extraction: AMR= $230 per pound.
Tax = $34.50 per pound, or approximately $0.08 per gram.
These come from https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/tax/marijuana-taxes-file — click on Average Market Rate for Unprocessed Retail Marijuana or Marijuana Taxes Sept 2018 AMR | File | Department of Revenue – Taxation
[This is from RAND-Vermont: Colorado side-stepped its constitutional authorization of a 15-percent “excise tax to be levied upon marijuana sold or otherwise transferred by a marijuana cultivation facility to a marijuana product manufacturing facility or to a retail marijuana store” (Constitution of the State of Colorado, Art. XVIII, section 16) and ended up taxing something it could measure, so it taxes by weight when a cultivation facility does not sell marijuana to an unrelated party. . . . So Colorado had to alter tactics and tax not a price, but “fifteen percent of the average market rate” (AMR) of a producer’s marijuana (Colorado Revised Statutes section 39-28.8- 302, 2014). That rate is supposed to reflect the value of marijuana as it leaves the producer’s hands The Colorado Department of Revenue (CDOR) is in charge of finding that AMR.]
Historical AMR data is at https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/sites/default/files/AMRChangeFactSheet_July2018_final.pdf, or AMRChangeFactSheet_July2018_final.
| AMR as of: | Bud Rate
($/lb) |
Trim Rate
($/lb) |
Bud Allocated for Extraction Rate
($/lb) |
Trim Allocated for Extraction Rate
($/lb) |
Immature Plant Rate
($/ea) |
Wet Whole Plant
Rate ($/lb) |
Seed
Rate ($/ea) |
Contaminated Product Allocated for Extraction Rate
($/lb) |
| January 1, 2015 | $2,007 | $364 | N/A | N/A | $9 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| July 1, 2015 | $1,868 | $370 | N/A | N/A | $8 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| January 1, 2016 | $1,948 | $464 | N/A | N/A | $9 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| July 1, 2016 | $1,816 | $505 | N/A | N/A | $10 | $209 | $2 | N/A |
| January 1, 2017 | $1,471 | $499 | N/A | N/A | $10 | $223 | $6 | N/A |
| July 1, 2017 | $1,298 | $426 | N/A | N/A | $4 | $227 | $3 | N/A |
| August 9, 2017 | $1,298 | $426 | N/A | N/A | $4 | $227 | $3 | $403 |
| October 1, 2017 | $1,305 | $405 | N/A | N/A | $5 | $227 | $3 | $403 |
| January 1, 2018 | $1,265 | $506 | $376 | $325 | $10 | $215 | $3 | N/A |
| April 1, 2018 | $1,012 | $700 | $349 | $302 | $5 | $230 | $5 | N/A |
| July 1, 2018 | $846 | $404 | $230 | $300 | $1 | $150 | $5 | N/A |
The Center for New Revenue 