Colorado Becomes First State To Generate More Tax Revenue From Marijuana Than

The holiday is the result of Colorado’s complex Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights and could cost the state between $3 million and $4 million in revenue.

On Wednesday, September 16, the state celebrated its new, “higher” source of income by suspending marijuana taxes for one day.

The Associated Press reported that the holiday is due to Colorado’s “unusual tax law,” and is a rare move in a state that “has many times rejected sales-tax holidays on things like school supplies, clothing or energy-efficient appliances.” Voters were given an estimate for overall state tax collections that proved short, triggering a mandatory reset of the new tax.

Colorado pot growers rejoiced when the state lifted taxes on recreational pot, saving them thousands of dollars while its consumers saved some bucks. Aurora will still charge its regular 5-percent city tax on weed despite the state markdowns, according to Robin Peterson, manager of the city’s Marijuana Enforcement Division. Cannabis sales reached $50 million for the first time in June, than rose over $55 million in July, the Forbes story said. Growers were also exempt from the 15 percent tax they must pay to the government for all sales made to dispensaries, so the holiday represented a big day for them as well. “Over the other 364 days, it will bring in tens of millions of dollars that will be reinvested in our state”.

The curious predicament of the Colorado legislature will doubtless be widely debated as other states consider the legalization of medical and recreational marijuana.

Colorado tracks marijuana sales, but it doesn’t make the data public, making it impossible to know if Wednesday set a single-day sales record. Tvert remarked that it was “crazy how much revenue our state used to flush down the drain by forcing marijuana sales into the underground market”.

You’d have to be in total denial to say this is not related to legalizing marijuana. In November, a ballot question will ask voters to give the state permission to keep the money. More damagingly, the soft drug business is often controlled by the same criminal syndicates that push harder, more unsafe drugs.

“They’ve been setting up doing their advertisements and telling their customers to come on down for special deals”, said Tyler Henson, president of the Colorado Cannabis Chamber of Commerce. Canada could count on some marijuana tourists if it legalized, but if more U.S. states follow, the tourism effect could be minimal in the longer run.