{"id":65081,"date":"2023-05-17T07:15:32","date_gmt":"2023-05-17T15:15:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2023\/05\/17\/oregon-marijuana-businesses-that-dont-pay-taxes-cant-get-licenses-under-governors-order\/"},"modified":"2023-05-17T19:46:11","modified_gmt":"2023-05-18T03:46:11","slug":"oregon-marijuana-businesses-that-dont-pay-taxes-cant-get-licenses-under-governors-order","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2023\/05\/17\/oregon-marijuana-businesses-that-dont-pay-taxes-cant-get-licenses-under-governors-order\/","title":{"rendered":"Oregon Marijuana Businesses That Don\u2019t Pay Taxes Can\u2019t Get Licenses Under Governor\u2019s Order"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will help ensure that all businesses are operating under the same rules and not getting any competitive advantage if they haven\u2019t paid their taxes.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

By Julia Shumway, Oregon Capital Chronicle<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cannabis companies will need to prove they\u2019ve paid their state taxes to receive licenses under new rules announced Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The new policy requested by Gov. Tina Kotek (D) will require marijuana dispensaries to provide certificates from the Department of Revenue indicating that they\u2019ve filed and paid all state taxes or have a payment plan for existing tax debt each time they try to renew their licenses with the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will help ensure that all businesses are operating under the same rules and not getting any competitive advantage if they haven\u2019t paid their taxes,\u201d Kotek said in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The new policy comes nearly two months after an\u00a0explosive Willamette Week investigation<\/a>\u00a0found that state and federal tax regulators had issued tax liens totaling about $3 million against La Mota, the state\u2019s second-largest cannabis chain and a major donor to Democratic politicians including Kotek.<\/p>\n

Secretary of State Shemia Fagan (D) resigned last week\u00a0following revelations that she took a side job<\/a> consulting for La Mota while her office audited the Liquor and Cannabis Commission, and Kotek and others have since donated their campaign contributions to charities.<\/p>\n

About 9 percent of cannabis retailers haven\u2019t fully paid their taxes, according to the Department of Revenue. Dispensaries are required to collect state sales taxes of 17 percent on all recreational marijuana, as well as 3 percent local taxes in many cities.<\/p>\n

Craig Prins, executive director of the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission, said in a press conference that most marijuana retailers collect taxes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a 90 percent, 10 percent issue,\u201d Prins said. \u201cMost of the folks in this industry are paying their taxes. We don\u2019t want to lose sight of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Prins said he plans to have draft language to the commission for a temporary rule by June 15 and to adopt a permanent rule by August or September. Dispensaries would be required to submit their certificates on a rolling basis as their licenses come up for renewal.<\/p>\n

Several other state agencies require tax compliance certificates before issuing licenses, including for child care agencies licensed by the Department of Human Services and private security companies licensed by the Department of Public Safety, Standards and Training. Revenue department employees, people employed by the governor\u2019s office and people Kotek appoints to state boards and commissions also need to have certificates.<\/p>\n

Anyone can request a\u00a0compliance certificate<\/a>\u00a0through the revenue department, Director Betsy Imholt said. Imholt said she first reached out to Prins on April 13 to discuss requiring certificates for cannabis companies.<\/p>\n

Because marijuana remains illegal at the federal level, cannabis retailers don\u2019t have access to the same banking services and financial tools as other industries. U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley and Rep. Earl Blumenauer, both Democratic members of Oregon\u2019s congressional delegation,\u00a0have reintroduced\u00a0legislation to allow marijuana businesses to use banks.<\/p>\n

The marijuana industry\u2019s reliance on cash makes it harder for the department of revenue to collect delinquent taxes.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the big tools that collectors use is to garnish bank accounts, and that\u2019s obviously not possible if they don\u2019t have one,\u201d Imholt said.<\/p>\n

Marijuana tax collections in 2022 and early 2023 were significantly lower than expected, according to a\u00a0February report<\/a> from the state office of economic analysis, as dispensaries struggled to pay their bills. An oversupply of marijuana resulted in lower prices, with the average price per gram dipping from more than $8 in January 2017 to about $4 in January 2023.<\/p>\n

This story was first published by Oregon Capital Chronicle.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

DEA Official Says New Rules Are Coming For Synthetic Cannabinoids, Including CBD And Delta-8 THC<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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The post Oregon Marijuana Businesses That Don\u2019t Pay Taxes Can\u2019t Get Licenses Under Governor\u2019s Order<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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\nRead More: Oregon Marijuana Businesses That Don\u2019t Pay Taxes Can\u2019t Get Licenses Under Governor\u2019s Order<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThis will help ensure that all businesses are operating under the same rules and not getting any competitive advantage if they haven\u2019t paid their taxes.\u201d By Julia Shumway, Oregon Capital Chronicle Cannabis companies will need to prove they\u2019ve paid their state taxes to receive licenses under new rules announced Tuesday.Continue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":457,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65081"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/457"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65081"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65081\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65082,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65081\/revisions\/65082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}