Pending Congressional restriction of Farm Bill Hemp THC Drugs will tax them. Proposals before Congress would classify these drugs as “marijuana,” and put them into Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, at least for now. All Schedule I substances are subject to the 280E selling expense tax.
Will the Joint Committee on Taxation score this revenue gain?
Must this kind of back door revenue raising bill originate in the House?
Does this legislation violate Grover Norquist’s No Tax Pledge — and set up primaries for the bill’s supporters? Grover famously tolerates “marijuana” taxes, since they involve a liberating move from prohibition to taxed sales. But cracking down on Farm Bill Drugs means moving from a free market to regulation and from untaxed sales to taxed sales. Is there some exception to the No Tax Pledge for “loophole closers”? Lots of tax increases that need to happen are loophole closers.
Now I suspect that the 2018 Farm Bill “loophole” that carved hemp drugs out of taxed “marijuana” was not scored as a revenue loser. But supposedly no one knew that that bill was legalizing intoxicants.
+++
Schedule III and tax scoring, from 2015:
Farm Bill Drugs:
The Center for New Revenue 