Posted on 11/22/2019 10:23:10 PM PST by BenLurkin
Hefty marijuana taxes that can approach 50 percent in some communities have been blamed for pushing shoppers into California’s tax-free illegal market, which is thriving. Industry analysts estimate that $3 are spent in the illegal market for every $1 in the legal one.
The group said the higher taxes that will take effect Jan. 1 will make it even worse for a legal industry struggling under the weight of heavy regulation and fees, local bans on pot sales and growing and a booming underground marketplace.
Josh Drayton of the cannabis association predicted that an eighth-ounce purchase of marijuana buds, typically priced around $40 to $45, would be pushed up to $50 or more in the new year.
A major change involves what’s known as the mark-up rate, which is used when calculating taxes in certain business transactions, such as when a retailer purchases wholesale cannabis that will in turn be sold to consumers. The mark-up rate is being pushed up over 30 percent from its current mark.
Casey Wells, a spokesman for the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration, said in a statement that the new rate was determined after the agency analyzed thousands of transactions in California’s computerized marijuana-tracking system.
Separately, cultivation tax rates are being increased by inflation, as required by law. For example, the tax on an ounce of dry buds will climb to $9.65 from $9.25, an increase of just over 4 percent.
(Excerpt) Read more at ktla.com ...
Only Kalifornistan can figure it how to destroy this. Just. Wow.
I would take a guess that legit shops will see closures over 2020/2021 being common. I can understand city sales taxes being applied but beyond that....it wasn’t necessary to go to this extreme.
Anybody wanna tell us how this legalization cut out the drug cartels.....?
Stupid f****** commie bastards. It’s not my state, but hearing this just infuriates me.
anyone who didnt see this coming is an...well...not paying much attention to who is governing their ‘lovely’ state.
Well, in fairness, they would have cut the dealers out if the incompetent government of California didn’t see them as a source of easy tax money.
Lot more hogs at the trough now.
It just created a new cartel in Sacramento.
Gee- didn’t see that coming /s
pot industry is shocked/ Lol=- pssst- everyone saw it coming from miles away-p
Let them crash. Pretend not to smile.
F’ing up a basically free meal?
The cartel has moved on to more lucrative things, like fentanyl and avocados
Portland Oregon price is $60 per ounce...
I never understood the business mode/tax scheme. They don’t call it weed for nothing. Anyone can grow it for pennies per ounce.
$60? That ain’t much more than we were paying for columbian in high school.
I think the tax is like 16% in Oklahoma. The junk isn’t cheap before taxes either. It ranges from and average of $266 to $343 an ounce depending on quality. I have no idea how long an ounce will last. They also sell it by the gram or 5 gram “dose” which seems really small.
California is too hip and avant garde to slip into the depths of a narco-state.
I hope I didn’t really need the closing /s tag.
There are other articles about how the (legal) pot business is being regulated to hell, particularly in northern California.
I just have to wonder how many of those people in the business have now switched from being Democrats to being Republicans...after dealing, FIRST HAND, with all of the crap that Democrats do to businesses, which they had supported, until it was THEM who got targeted.
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