Sonoma, California Ease Tax Burden for County Weed Farmers
High Times

Officials in Sonoma, California moved this week to provide tax relief to the area’s cannabis cultivators, another decision driven by the continued economic struggles of the state’s legal marijuana industry. North Bay Business Journal reports that the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors “voted 4 to 1 on Tuesday to change how the tax on cannabis cultivation is set, lowering the amount some growers will pay while raising it for others,” making it so that “cannabis growers in the county’s jurisdiction will be taxed based on which of the size of their operations categorized into three different methods, calculated on a gross receipt tax rate of 2.5%.” The change will take effect in July, per the Journal, which noted that cannabis growers “will pay [a] rate of $0.75 per square foot for outdoor operations; $12.50 per square foot for indoor cultivation, and $3 per square foot for mixed-light cultivation where a combination of artificial and natural light is deployed.” This week’s vote comes almost a year after the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors slashed cannabis cultivation taxes by nearly 50%. James Gore, the chair of the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors, told High Times last March why he advocated for the new tax alignment.  “This tax reduction is in line with the market impacts that cannabis producers are encountering right now with a precipitous drop in wholesale price-per-pound,” Gore said at the time. “The reason that this was justified, merited, warranted is that our cannabis tax, like many other jurisdictions, was based on coverage—square feet. It was intended to be one and 5% of gross receipts, but when you have a drop in wholesale price, and you’re still taxing based on square footage, all of a sudden that potential 3-5% grows into not just 15 or 20—but upwards of that.” Gore…

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Source : Sonoma, California Ease Tax Burden for County Weed Farmers

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