RECEIPTIf you are late to the party, Colorado has fully legalized marijuana and in the first five months of legal retail sales, Colorado has sold a staggering $90 million worth of marijuana. We thought you may find it interesting to discover there are plenty of taxes attached to these sales. We recently received this receipt to our offices outlining all the taxes on the purchase of marijuana in Colorado. The Colorado Department of Revenue announced that the state earned $35 million in taxes, licensing and other fees from July 1, 2013 to June 30, 2014. The state collected nearly $5 million in taxes this June, an increase from the previous month. Governor John Hickenlooper expects sales to reach $1 Billion in the first fiscal year of legal marijuana. He also expects around $114 Million in taxes during this year. Colorado is proof that marijuana sales can benefit the state and generate revenue. We would greatly appreciate your comments regarding the taxes associated with this purchase.

As many of you who follow me and/or this tax blog know I have been actively tracking a handful of select medical marijuana dispensaries in Colorado who have been denied the opportunity to deduct ordinary and necessary business expenses by the IRS when arriving at net income subject to income tax. One of the first things I learned is that this industry is messy in several regards and perhaps left to more courageous practitioners of the United States Tax Code. Along the journey I witnessed first hand what appears to be systematic profiling and haphazard application of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) including threats of US Treasury Circular 230 violations against quality practitioners in search of the truth by overzealous IRS Examiners as they work towards a standard enforcement framework. Being Read More