Accounting For Retail Dispensaries
280E hits retail hardest. Which makes your chart of accounts and your entity structure worth more than almost anything else you do.
Where Retail Loses Money To 280E
A dispensary's capitalizable costs under §471 are narrower than a cultivator's, so more of what you spend is stuck as non-deductible operating expense. That makes three things matter enormously: how your chart of accounts is built, whether your entity structure is doing any work for you, and whether your point-of-sale reconciles cleanly to both your books and your state tracking system.
We have watched operators price product on a gross margin that looked healthy and discover their after-tax position was negative. The arithmetic was right. The tax treatment was not in it.
What We Handle
Frequently Asked
Can a dispensary do anything about 280E?
Yes, though the room is narrower than for a cultivator. The levers are entity structure, correct §471 capitalization of what genuinely qualifies, and disciplined books that make the allocation visible and defensible.
Do you handle multi-location operators?
Yes, including consolidation, segment reporting by store, and inter-company transactions where a structure involves multiple entities.
We're opening our first store. When should we talk?
Before you open. Entity structure and chart of accounts decisions made pre-opening determine your 280E exposure for years, and they are far more expensive to fix later.