A Maryland tax official says the state has found an unusual workaround with Wells Fargo in order to avoid clearly identifying marijuana tax revenue on financial forms, yet another example of the creative workarounds being used by cannabis businesses and regulators amid ongoing federal prohibition.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was a heavy lift and something we had to do,\u201d Rob Scheerer, director of the Maryland Office of the Comptroller\u2019s Revenue Administration Division, reportedly said at a Maryland Association of Counties conference last week. \u201cIn order to protect the banks, we can\u2019t even call this cannabis on the tax return.\u201d<\/p>\n
Instead, he added, \u201cWe have craftily called this \u2018A sale subject to the 9 percent rate under Senate Bill 516 of 2023.’\u201d<\/p>\n
That legislation, which took effect July 1, ushered in the state\u2019s legal cannabis system<\/a>\u2014as well as a 9 percent tax on adult-use marijuana sales. (Sales to registered medical patients remain tax-free.) Some cannabis companies have already paid the state tens of thousands of dollars, Scheerer said, declining to identify the businesses, but \u201cthe lion\u2019s share of this revenue is really going to come in late October.\u201d<\/p>\n The comments were first reported by Maryland Matters<\/a>.<\/p>\n During the first month of legal adult-use sales, licensed retailers in Maryland moved more than $87 million in marijuana products<\/a>\u2014more than double the amount sold the previous month, when dispensaries served patients only.<\/p>\n Because marijuana remains illegal under federal law, banks and credit unions can face penalties from federal banking regulator for working with cannabis businesses. Under the 1970 Banking Secrecy Act, money identified as coming from federally illegal activity must be flagged through a suspicious activity report.<\/p>\n Neither Wells Fargo nor the Maryland Office of the Comptroller immediately replied to emails from Marijuana Moment ahead of publication on Wednesday.<\/p>\n Federal lawmakers have been working to address banking headaches caused by the state\u2013federal conflict on marijuana through a bill called the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act, which was reintroduced for the current legislative session in April<\/a>. If passed, it would provide safe harbor for banks who do business with the cannabis industry.<\/p>\n Progress on the legislation has been slow, but Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said at a press conference late last month that the work continues. Lawmakers are \u201cmaking good progress\u201d in bipartisan negotiations, he said, noting that advancing SAFE will be a priority<\/a> during what he said should be a \u201cvery, very productive fall in the Senate.\u201d<\/p>\n Days earlier, a lobbyist who briefly spoke with Schumer said the majority leader\u00a0told him that \u201cwe\u2019re working on it\u201d<\/a> when asked about the bill.<\/p>\n Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and lead SAFE Banking Act cosponsor Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) have sparred over next steps in recent weeks. Brown has insisted that Daines needs to secure more GOP cosponsors, but Daines argues that Republicans are already prepared to move the legislation as previously agreed to through the floor.<\/p>\n One source of contention is Section 10 of the bill. Democrats like Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) have pushed for revising or eliminating the provisions, arguing that they would broadly undermine banking regulations. But Republicans view that as a \u201cnon-starter.\u201d<\/p>\n Daines has also previously cautioned against attempting to expand the measure with social justice reforms that progressives would like to add, though his office has told Marijuana Moment that\u00a0the senator is \u201copen\u201d to adding expungements language<\/a>, as proposed by Schumer.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the American Trade Association for Cannabis and Hemp (ATACH)\u2014along with trade groups representing marijuana businesses in 16 states plus Washington, D.C.\u2014sent a letter to Brown and Banking Committee Ranking Member Tim Scott (R-SC) last month, imploring them to pass the cannabis banking bill \u201cwithout further delay.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Schumer also\u00a0recently spoke with a cannabis industry leader<\/a> who approached him at an unrelated event this summer. According to that person, the Senate leader was feeling \u201cconfident\u201d about the prospects of passing the cannabis banking bill.<\/p>\n Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), for his part, has said that he\u2019s a \u201cyes\u201d on the legislation<\/a>. But he doubts Democratic leadership will follow through on their pledge to get the job done this year.<\/p>\n Some advocates and lawmakers have floated changes they\u2019d like to see incorporated into bill, such as expanding protections to all forms of financial services, including representation on major U.S. stock exchanges<\/a>.<\/p>\n That request has\u00a0faced some criticism from other advocates who say that would be an inappropriate move to help businesses while efforts to legalize marijuana stall in Congress.<\/p>\n Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) also recently said that\u00a0she wanted the SAFE Banking Act to pass with an amendment<\/a>\u00a0allowing cannabis businesses to access federal Small Business Administration (SBA) services.<\/p>\n In April, Schumer said he was \u201cdisappointed\u201d that a so-called SAFE Plus package of cannabis reform legislation didn\u2019t advance last year, saying \u201cwe came close,\u201d but \u201cwe ran into opposition in the last minute.\u201d He said lawmakers will continue to \u201cwork in a bipartisan way\u201d<\/a>\u00a0to get the job done.<\/p>\n The majority leader has been\u00a0holding meetings with Democratic<\/a>\u00a0and Republican members<\/a>\u00a0in the early months of the new Congress to discuss cannabis reform proposals that might have bipartisan buy-in this year.<\/p>\n Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) has said lawmakers are working to \u201cresurrect\u201d the cannabis reform package<\/a>, acknowledging that failure to advance a banking fix for the industry \u201cliterally means that hundreds of businesses go out of business.<\/p>\n Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), who is a lead sponsor of the House version of the SAFE Banking Act, said at a recent press briefing that thinks it\u2019s important that advocates and lawmakers align on any incremental proposals to end the drug war,\u00a0warning against an \u201call-or-nothing\u201d mentality<\/a>.<\/p>\n Allowing Interstate Cannabis Commerce Would Not Risk Federal Enforcement, Local Government Groups Tell California AG<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post Maryland Is \u2018Craftily\u2019 Coding Marijuana Tax Revenue In Obscure Terms To \u2018Protect\u2019 Wells Fargo, State Official Says<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
A Maryland tax official says the state has found an unusual workaround with Wells Fargo in order to avoid clearly identifying marijuana tax revenue on financial forms, yet another example of the creative workarounds being used by cannabis businesses and regulators amid ongoing federal prohibition. \u201cThis was a heavy liftContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67924"}],"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\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67924"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67925,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67924\/revisions\/67925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Maryland Is \u2018Craftily\u2019 Coding Marijuana Tax Revenue In Obscure Terms To \u2018Protect\u2019 Wells Fargo, State Official Says<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"