Washington Department of Revenue cracks down on marijuana dispensaries
Aug 18, 2012, 12:27 PM | Updated: Aug 20, 2012, 5:33 am
Since 2010, the State Department of Revenue has been telling medical marijuana establishments that they must collect and send in sales taxes on their transactions.
About 50 dispensaries have registered with the state, and that’s helped Washington collect about $750,000 in taxes over the span of one year.
State officials, however, believe that many dispensaries are dodging taxes. Some say that a large unknown number of outlets remain unregistered and do not pay taxes, while some registered entities are improperly telling the state they had no taxable business.
After two years of educating growers and dispensaries, the state is now acting to enforce existing tax laws.
In order to make sure legitimate revenue can be collected, the state is currently conducting audits on two major dispensaries.
However, Seattle medical marijuana lawyer Douglas Hiatt said this week that he doesn’t believe the state can legally tax marijuana sales at all. Under current law, marijuana is only available for medical use. In Washington state, medicines are not taxable.
