Ep. 128: How to Properly Adhere to 280E to Reduce Tax Liability for Cannabis Companies

The Cannabis Accounting Podcast

Cannabis businesses who try to get creative to circumvent 280E often find themselves in precarious positions with the IRS. Since companies in the Cannabis industry are not able to legally take tax deductions due to its classification as a Schedule 1 drug, many try to get around 280E by setting up multiple entity structures to attempt to create partitions within their corporations, or use IRC 471 incorrectly, to take deductions like businesses in other industries. Tax courts have ruled against these techniques time and time again.

Minimizing tax liability while being subject to 280E doesn’t need to cause anxiety or fear if done correctly!

On this episode of The Cannabis Accounting Podcast, attorney Nick Richards, partner and co-chair of the Cannabis Law practice group at Greenspoon Marder, LLP, and DOPE CFO Founder Andrew Huzicker, CPA discuss how businesses may benefit from using tax code 471-C when doing their taxes, using Capital Asset Theory to treat costs under 280E as capital assets (under the 16th Amendment of the Constitution), and ways to take expenses at exit (even under 280E).