Several of the top industry experts and city laid out on Monday, August 14th the new ways that Denver in effect could tax marijuana customers and the companies producing related products as part of the continuing effort to ensure that taxes are high but not high enough to move people to the use of the black market.
Some of the options they considered are matching the medical taxes with the recreational taxes. This would work by taxing the wholesalers or the retailers in order for them to continue operating their marijuana businesses.
There has yet to be any changes set in stone but questions are coming up around what to charge the marijuana companies/consumers. Denver Councilwoman Kendra Black stated that “For the two years that I’ve been a City Council person, every time wr talk about marijuana, taxes and taxation come up. We talk about the possibility of raining the taxes, and we talk about earmarking the taxes.”
The current tax rate for cannabis in Denver if it is medical stands at the same rate as the city’s general sales tax rate of 3.65%. Recreational marijuana products are subject to that tax as well as an additional rate of 3.5%.
If a consumer chose to spend $20 on some weed, they would be giving the city of Denver $0.73 if it is medical and $1.43, if it is from a retail dispensary.
In the year 2015, Denver raised $15.7 million dollars from sales taxes on recreational marijuana alone. $7 million was raised from taxes on medical marijuana. The rate that Denver is changing various companies and consumers in taxes is similar to that of the tax rates in other large cities such as; Los Angeles, Seattle and Las Vegas.
Adam Orens, a consultant with the Marijuana Policy Group, stated “There’s nothing right now to give somebody the incentive to drive across the metro area to make a purchase solely based on tax rates.”
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