Alaska Pot Businesses Will Have To Pay Cash Taxes

[+Malamute]

Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Thu, 21 Jan 2016
Source: Alaska Dispatch News (AK)
Webpage: http://drugsense.org/url/8eoD35Eg
Copyright: 2016 Alaska Dispatch Publishing
Contact: letters@adn.com
Website: http://www.adn.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/18
Note: Anchorage Daily News until July '14
Author: Laurel Andrews

ALASKA POT BUSINESSES WILL HAVE TO PAY CASH TAXES IN ANCHORAGE

Alaska marijuana businesses from Barrow to Juneau paying their
monthly taxes in cash will have to travel to Anchorage to deposit the
money, the state tax division said Wednesday.

The tax division outlined its plans Wednesday, the first news of how
Alaska's canna-businesses will pay their monthly taxes since the
state held discussion sessions this autumn.

"I'm sure the folks that are planning to do business anywhere but
Anchorage are going to be disappointed," deputy director of the
Revenue Department's Tax Division, Brandon Spanos, said Wednesday.

Once Alaska's commercial marijuana industry gets up and running later
this year, growers will pay excise taxes every month. The division is
proposing $50 per ounce of flower or bud, and $15 per ounce for the
rest of the plant.

Alaska legalized recreational marijuana in November 2014, and since
then, the tax division has been grappling with a so-called "cash
problem:" With canna-businesses remaining illegal on the federal
level, Alaska's financial institutions aren't opening their doors to
the trade. Locked out of traditional banking practices, the state is
anticipating an influx of cash payments to its department, which
raises security and staffing issues.

In October, the division met with the public to discuss "creative
ideas" for solving the problem. Two of the most promising ideas were
hiring armored transportation carriers to transport cash, or having
multiple cash deposit boxes placed around the state.

In the end, those ideas were found to be too expensive. "With the
state's current budget crisis we just have to do the cheapest
option," Spanos said.

The cheapest option means keeping the procedures "in-house," Spanos
said. Cash will be handled by existing division employees, and one
secure deposit box will be placed at the Atwood Building in downtown Anchorage.

"We're doing more with less," Spanos said.

People who can't pay electronically will file online, print out a
voucher, take it downtown, where they will deposit the cash into a
deposit box. Businesses statewide will need to come to Anchorage
monthly, Spanos said.

Reacting to a description of the division's plan, Coalition for
Responsible Cannabis Legislation communications director Kim Kole
said, "That's awful. That's my initial reaction."

"I understand the concept of minimizing their costs ... However, that
is unreasonably burdensome for the vast majority of the state and I
could see where this could cause problems down the road," Kole said.

"It would not surprise me if it resulted in a lawsuit," Kole added later.

Despite rigid banking rules, the tax division is hoping that many
businesses will find ways to pay electronically, as has been the case
in other states to legalize marijuana. The state of Washington has
said that 75 percent of businesses pay taxes electronically.

Initial estimations say that Alaska's 2016 marijuana tax revenue
could be anywhere from around $5 million to $19 million, but how much
of that is realized, and how much is in cash, is "just a guess," Spanos said.

The division will need to buy a secure drop box, a safe, cash
counting machine, security cameras and alarm systems for the Atwood
Building, Spanos said. A rough estimate of costs is around $50,000.

The division may also open a second cash deposit system in Juneau, Spanos said.

"We really explored it and we tried very hard to make it available to
everyone but we only have employees in the department in Anchorage
and Juneau," he said.

The state hopes to have its cash deposit box up and running by July,
when Spanos said it could start receiving its first monthly taxes.

[Wild Bill]

The division is proposing $50 per ounce of flower or bud, and $15 per ounce for the rest of the plant.

 

That's great! Tax and regulate is a swell idea!

[+Malamute]

With Indoor going for $150 in many places and outdoor going for as low as $100/oz,... that is like a 33-50% tax.

 

Tax and regulate is CRAPOLA!

 

:-)

[Smallbiz]

http://www.priceofweed.com/prices/United-States/Alaska.html

[t-pain]

i heard in one state (forgot which) it was going to be taxed at like 35% per bud and 10$ per plant...

 

well why not just sell entire plants with buds on them less tax ... whatever

[trichcycler]

I would prefer to supply my patients with freshly cut/harvested plants, that would free my resources tremendously and I'd pass those savings along to my patients.