Cannabis Business Taxes

A cannabis business doesn't have a tax bill — it has a stack of them. Federal income tax under 280E. State income tax that may or may not decouple from 280E. State cannabis excise. Sales and use tax. Payroll taxes. And in many markets, city or county cannabis business taxes on top. Each layer has its own filings, deadlines, and penalties, and they interact: the way you record costs for one determines your position on another. We handle the whole stack as one system, because that's what it is.

The layers we manage

Federal corporate or pass-through income tax with 280E-compliant COGS positions. State income tax, including the growing list of states that decouple from 280E and allow deductions federally denied — a distinction worth real money that generalist preparers routinely miss. State cannabis excise tax filings on their own calendars. Sales and use tax, including use-tax exposure on equipment purchases nobody remembered. Payroll deposits and returns. Local cannabis taxes with their own bases and deadlines.

Planning beats preparation

Filing accurately is table stakes. The value is in the year: entity structure reviewed as the business changes, quarterly projections so the federal liability is never a surprise, excise reserves accrued as sales occur rather than discovered at the deadline, and state decoupling opportunities captured in the books from January — not reconstructed in March.

One firm, one picture

When separate providers handle income tax, excise, and payroll, the seams between them are where penalties live. One firm carrying the whole stack means every filing draws from the same reconciled books and every position is consistent across every return — which is exactly what an examiner checks first.

Common questions