Taxes

Missouri officials last week transferred more than $23.3 million in cannabis taxes. Half of the funds went to the Missouri Veterans Commission, the other half went to the Department of Health and Human Services for a drug treatment program.

State officials in Ohio are withholding more than $10 million in adult-use cannabis tax revenue that was, according to the voter-approved legalization law, supposed to be earmarked for local governments that opted to allow cannabis businesses.

Eyeing a potential $4 million annual revenue bump, the San Diego City Council has voted to raise the local tax rate on licensed cannabis businesses from 8% to 10%.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) said in his budget address that he wants to raise the special tax on cannabis from $2.50 per ounce to $15 per ounce to fund violence intervention and social service programs.

Combined medical and adult-use cannabis sales in Arizona totaled $1.1 billion last year, less than the nearly $1.3 billion in sales in both 2022 and 2023.

New Jersey cannabis officials have collected over $6 million in cannabis social equity excise fees but the state has yet to allocate any of the funds.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Witmer proposed adding cannabis products to the state’s wholesale tax, which is applied at 32% to other smoking products like tobacco, under her plan for state infrastructure funding.

Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford (R) has introduced legislation to prohibit cannabis operators from deducting business expenses from their taxes, even if cannabis were to be federally rescheduled under federal law.

Arkansas medical cannabis retailers sold more products in 2024 than in the previous year but due to a lowering of prices, the industry’s total revenue dropped.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) included the legalization of adult-use cannabis in his 2025-2026 budget proposal.

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) said in a recent address that she plans to use tax revenue generated by the state’s medical cannabis industry to fund free meals in schools around the state.

The New York adult-use cannabis industry recently exceeded $1 billion in total sales according to the annual Office of Cannabis Management industry report.

California state officials said the state has collected over a quarter of a billion dollars in cannabis tax revenue during the third quarter of 2024.

An appellate judges panel in Missouri recently ruled that local governments cannot stack cannabis sales taxes, overturning a lower court’s decision from May.

New York cannabis regulators expect to see $800 million in retail cannabis taxes by the end of the year, far short of the $5 billion estimated by the state when it legalized adult-use cannabis.

The American Institute of CPAs is asking the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to provide tax guidance for cannabis businesses as the Biden Administration moves to reschedule cannabis under federal law.

After two years of legal adult-use sales, New York cannabis tax grants are finally available to fund reinvestment in the state’s communities most heavily affected by prior drug policies.

Maryland collected nearly $22.4 million in cannabis taxes during the second quarter of 2024, a 52% increase from the previous quarter.

Lawmakers in Pennsylvania filed a bipartisan bill on Monday to legalize adult-use cannabis. The bill, which calls for regulating the adult-use industry and expunging past cannabis crimes, was filed on state lawmakers’ first day back from recess.

Cannabis tax revenues have declined in California year-over-year for the last four years, with total taxable cannabis sales in Q2 2024 down by a third since the same time period in 2021.

Michigan cannabis retailers set a new monthly sales record of $295.4 million in August, which marked the third consecutive month of increasing sales for the state.

North Dakota Tax Commissioner Brian Kroshus estimates the state could generate $7.281 million every two years in adult-use cannabis taxes based on a 5% sales tax rate.

Illinois surpassed $1 billion in combined adult-use and medical cannabis sales this year by July 1, about two weeks earlier than the previous year.