For Woolhiser, whose sales have increased dramatically since he began selling recreational marijuana Jan. 1, the confusing nature of the code means he has no idea how much he will owe in taxes — just that it will be far more than what it might be if he was selling anything else.
"A lot of people think that the marijuana industry is just a license to print money," said Taylor West, deputy director of the National Cannabis Industry Association. "And it's just not the case."
West works for an association of more than 750 cannabis-related businesses across the United States, and says that 280E results in her clients paying more than 70% of their profits in taxes to the federal government.
Sometimes, the rates are far higher than that.
"A lot of times, instead of paying a tax rate that should be 30 to 40%, they are paying rates between 80 or 90%," Cornelius, the accountant, said. "I even have a client right now that is paying more than 100% effective tax rate."
"The problem is that we have passed laws that allowed these medical marijuana and recreational marijuana companies to do business," said Mac Clouse, a University of Denver finance professor who studies the industry. "But we have all these other laws, tax laws, federal laws that make it incredibly difficult if not utterly impossible to survive."
More states may legalize marijuana this year, but state laws don't change federal laws.
And barring any changes from Congress, new cannabis businesses in those states, along with the established shops in Colorado and Washington state, face a large, and possibly ruinous, tax bill come April 15.
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