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 ...
They will always continue to exploit legal distributors and growers and undercut the market.
Bingo they the cartels own that business doper keep them in business,unlike California they have warehouses full of cash.
Can’t see how they would survive with nearly 50% tax. Leftist retardation.
way to go California. Tax the legitimate, lab-tested crop shops out of business, cut residential humans water use to 50 gals/day, starve the veggie and fruit farmers from lack of water, mandate ‘down lighting’ to preserve the night sky, kill us with strict electric rates, at the same time refusing to deal with and/or let the Feds deal with the illegal growers popping up like freaking mushrooms. And yet you stand by silently as illegal growers light up the night sky all night long, run electric to capacity, and use water like there’s no tomorrow to grow 35% of the nation’s pot instead of 50% of the nation’s food.
So, now the truth is out for everyone to see - there has always been enough water for everyone including ag and ranchers, there is no need to raise electric rates after all because it’s obviously plentiful, and all that ‘night sky’ stuff was just virtue signaling to enrich Sacramento’s pensions and perks.
Yup - out there, wishful thinking and denial constitute a fiscal policy.
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