Arkansas’ top government accounting agency issued guidelines that permit CPAs to serve businesses involved in the state’s legal medical marijuana program, which goes online next year.
Arkansas is at least the ninth state to issue guidelines on whether, or how, accountants should serve legal marijuana businesses.
Through April 2016, accounting boards in Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Maryland, Nevada, Oregon and Washington state issued such guidelines, according to the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants (AICPA).
Those boards have generally said that CPAs are not prohibited from providing services to marijuana companies, so long as the businesses they serve are in compliance with state laws.
But those guidelines – like the AICPA’s – also caution accountants to consider the risks of serving businesses involved in the marijuana industry.
Indeed, many traditional accounting firms are still leery of taking on cannabis-related clients because of marijuana remains federally illegal.
But in the past two or three years – as more states have legalized medical and recreational marijuana – there has been an increase in accountants serving the cannabis industry, said Aaron Smith, executive director of the National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA).
Of the NCIA’s 1,400 members, 26 list themselves as CPAs, Smith said.
While most CPAs who serve the cannabis industry would do so even without professional permission, such guidelines are still helpful, Smith said.
“It raises legitimacy,” he said. “It’s fully legal to provide services to cannabis businesses. These guidelines reaffirm that right – they’re not creating that right.”
Accounting isn’t the only ancillary white-collar profession where professional boards have issued guidelines on serving MMJ businesses.
Some bar and legal associations have done just that, and most of the time, those guidelines have allowed members to serve marijuana businesses.
But there have been instances where state-level legal and medical boards have told professionals they could face ethics violations or other penalties for serving MMJ clients.
