California lawmakers start push to lower state marijuana taxes

California lawmakers start push to lower state marijuana taxes

Published on 3/18/18

California has a massive legal cannabis market, but the prices consumers are paying with the included taxes has many choosing to use the black market instead. Like many other states that have legal cannabis they're stuggling to find the proper threshold of necessary taxes and a reasonable price for consumers to want to purchase their product legally. California lawmakers have proposed a bill that would reduce the taxes on cannabis products for the next three years to allow the market to reach it's stride. By lowering the excise tax on cannabis products from 15% to 11% and also completely removing the cultivation tax it will allow cannabis businesses to lower their prices for consumers while also still making enough profit to keep the businesses running smoothly. Some places in California are currently paying as high as 45% in taxes after the product goes through several different businesses.

The bill would drop the state excise tax on cannabis products to 11% from 15% for three years, until June 2021. It would also suspend the cultivation tax that growers now pay.

The measure – technically an amendment to an existing bill, AB 3157 – would in effect cut the prices that consumers pay for medical and recreational products by roughly 9%, based on analysis by New Frontier Data, according to a news release from Lackey’ office.

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