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luvdemshrooms
Two inch dick..but it spins!?


Registered: 11/29/01
Posts: 34,247
Loc: Lost In Space
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After Year of Washington Legal Pot Sales, Taxes Top $70M
#21898511 - 07/04/15 09:04 PM (8 years, 6 months ago) |
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After Year of Washington Legal Pot Sales, Taxes Top $70M ABC News
Washington launched its second-in-the-nation legal marijuana market with just a handful of stores selling high-priced pot to long lines of customers. A year later, the state has about 160 shops open, tax revenues have soared past expectations and sales top $1.4 million per day.
And who knows — the industry might even start making some money.
Washington pot farmers, processors and retailers have complained all year that heavy state and federal tax burdens, along with competition from an unregulated medical marijuana market, have made it difficult for them to do business.
But at least some relief is here: This month, two new laws take effect, one to regulate and tax medical marijuana, and one to cut Washington's three-level excise tax on pot to a single, 37-percent tax.
Despite some industry gripes and those tweaks to Washington's legal pot law, which voters passed in 2012 to legalize marijuana for adults over 21, officials and legalization backers say the state's slow and deliberate effort to regulate marijuana has been a success.
A year after stores opened on July 8, 2014, here's a look at the state of legal weed here.
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THE TAXES
Washington's racked up more than $250 million in marijuana sales in the past year — roughly $62 million of which constitute marijuana excise taxes. That's beyond the state's original forecast of $36 million. And when state and local sales and other taxes are included, the total payday for the state and local governments tops $70 million.
That's real money, if only a drop in Washington's $38 billion two-year budget. Colorado's recreational sales began Jan. 1, 2014, and brought in taxes of $44 million in the first year.
The tax revenue could continue to keep climbing.
And as other states watch Washington and Colorado, the only other state with legal marijuana sales, bring in more money, they're ever more seriously considering following suit, as Oregon and Alaska have already.
"Nobody's counting on the revenue from cannabis sales to save us, but it has an impact," David Zuckerman, a Vermont state senator and legalization advocate, said during a recent visit to Seattle. "The more important thing is that the sky didn't fall in Colorado. The tidal wave hasn't hit Seattle. They're showing us that this can be done."
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... AND THE TAXES
The flip side has been the burden of the taxes on pot businesses, with marijuana taxed 25 percent each time it moves from the growers to the processers to the retailers. That's been especially tough on retailers, who must pay federal income tax on the marijuana tax they turn over to the state.
James Lathrop, who owns Seattle's first legal marijuana shop, Cannabis City, says through the end of 2014, his estimated federal tax liability was $510,000, on top of the $778,000 he owed the state on $3.1 million in sales.
"I'm basically doing this for free," Lathrop says. "Nobody's gone out of business, but I'm not driving a new truck either."
It hasn't been much easier on the growers.
"Looking back now, it's amazing we could be so successful and unsuccessful at the same time," says Jeremy Moberg, a long-time black-market grower who went legal and now runs CannaSol Farms in north-central Washington. "We're the No. 9 grower in the state, and my bank account just seems to stagnate."
-------------------- You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for that my dear friend is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. ~ Adrian Rogers
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Jufin


Registered: 03/31/08
Posts: 5,116
Loc: Australia
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Re: After Year of Washington Legal Pot Sales, Taxes Top $70M [Re: luvdemshrooms]
#21898878 - 07/04/15 10:25 PM (8 years, 6 months ago) |
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Fuck yeah!
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LSDaytripper
Believer



Registered: 08/04/07
Posts: 649
Loc: Ohio
Last seen: 11 months, 7 days
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Re: After Year of Washington Legal Pot Sales, Taxes Top $70M [Re: Jufin]
#21899081 - 07/04/15 11:20 PM (8 years, 6 months ago) |
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How can any president or congress deny the value of this? I'm not saying legal marijuana will save the country, but it's clear that the economic benefits would be huge. Just lower the excise taxes on retailers a bit so that they can actually grow their business, and it will only boom.
Edited by LSDaytripper (07/04/15 11:23 PM)
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TNK
Pleasures of Africa



Registered: 01/30/10
Posts: 14,237
Loc: I AM THUNDERBOT
Last seen: 1 month, 18 days
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Re: After Year of Washington Legal Pot Sales, Taxes Top $70M [Re: LSDaytripper] 1
#21899460 - 07/05/15 01:42 AM (8 years, 6 months ago) |
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How can the federal government tax something they deem illegal?
-------------------- Edited by TNK (02/22/22 22:22 PM)
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Fractal420
Psycellium



Registered: 06/21/13
Posts: 5,913
Last seen: 8 months, 15 days
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Re: After Year of Washington Legal Pot Sales, Taxes Top $70M [Re: TNK]
#21899969 - 07/05/15 07:42 AM (8 years, 6 months ago) |
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^great point
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luvdemshrooms
Two inch dick..but it spins!?


Registered: 11/29/01
Posts: 34,247
Loc: Lost In Space
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Re: After Year of Washington Legal Pot Sales, Taxes Top $70M [Re: Fractal420]
#21900143 - 07/05/15 09:04 AM (8 years, 6 months ago) |
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Quote:
TheNatureKid said: How can the federal government tax something they deem illegal? 
Quote:
Fractal420 said: ^great point
Not so much. The feds aren't taxing the weed sales, they're taxing the income derived from the weed sales.
Quote:
That's been especially tough on retailers, who must pay federal income tax on the marijuana tax they turn over to the state.
-------------------- You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for that my dear friend is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. ~ Adrian Rogers
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FractalMind
Werewolf



Registered: 10/13/14
Posts: 685
Loc: USA
Last seen: 4 years, 6 months
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Re: After Year of Washington Legal Pot Sales, Taxes Top $70M [Re: luvdemshrooms]
#21900598 - 07/05/15 11:31 AM (8 years, 6 months ago) |
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I think the tax income will be the thing that helps legalize cannabis on a federal level. Once they realize the money they can exploit from the market, they will have absolutely no problem taxing and regulating it. They don't care about medicine, they want dollars and cents.
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rajajuju
Shén Xiān



Registered: 12/30/08
Posts: 105
Last seen: 6 years, 2 months
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Re: After Year of Washington Legal Pot Sales, Taxes Top $70M [Re: FractalMind]
#21901921 - 07/05/15 04:59 PM (8 years, 6 months ago) |
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Quote:
FractalMind said: I think the tax income will be the thing that helps legalize cannabis on a federal level. Once they realize the money they can exploit from the market, they will have absolutely no problem taxing and regulating it. They don't care about medicine, they want dollars and cents.
this is presupposing they dont already make MORE money by keeping it illegal..
selling tons to dealers as undercovers, busting them and taking it back, for example - and im not talking about small scale shit here, im talking actual tons
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PsilocybinMan
State Alchemist



Registered: 05/25/15
Posts: 391
Loc: דגים ועצ
Last seen: 3 days, 21 hours
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Re: After Year of Washington Legal Pot Sales, Taxes Top $70M [Re: rajajuju]
#21902062 - 07/05/15 05:40 PM (8 years, 6 months ago) |
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"....is the principal of the matter..."
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🖨️🖥️🖱️📠👓🔬🔭 מאוד גבוה, האטמוספרה של כדור הארץ הופכת להיות דקה מאוד. האזור שבו האטומים ומולקולות לברוח לחלל נקרא אקסוםפירה. אקסוםפירה היא על גבי תרמוספירה.
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