Designing a Federal Tax on Cannabis
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Patrick Oglesby
Abstract
A Federal tax on cannabis requires answers to several questions: 1. What should we tax? What should be the “base” or bases of a cannabis tax? (Possible bases include: price; weight of various product types [like flower, trim, and concentrate]; and THC content.) 2. Given any base, what should the tax rate be? 3. Should medical cannabis bear full tax? 4. Should marijuana advertising and selling expenses become deductible for federal income tax purposes? (That would treat cannabis businesses like other businesses; current Internal Revenue Code section 280E bars such deductions.) Recently introduced federal legislation provides answers, some more aligned with drug policy than others, to those questions.
Acknowledgements
The author thanks Mark A.R. Kleiman, Richard Hahn, and Deborah Harlow for comments on this article. All errors of fact and judgment are the author’s.
© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Designing a Federal Tax on Cannabis
- Cannabis Regulation in Uruguay: An Innovative Law Facing Major Challenges
- Mixed Messages from Europe on Drug Policy Reform: The Cases of Sweden and the Netherlands
- China’s New Long March to Control Illicit Substance Use: From a Punitive Regime towards Harm Reduction
Articles in the same Issue
- Designing a Federal Tax on Cannabis
- Cannabis Regulation in Uruguay: An Innovative Law Facing Major Challenges
- Mixed Messages from Europe on Drug Policy Reform: The Cases of Sweden and the Netherlands
- China’s New Long March to Control Illicit Substance Use: From a Punitive Regime towards Harm Reduction
