Business, Understanding, & Development Summit (BUD Summit) Tackles Tax Rates Facing Cannabis Industry

The BUD Summit, the most comprehensive cannabis trade show and big ideas confab ever convened east of the Rockies, will take on the hottest topic in the marijuana business world: excessive federal and volatile state tax rates facing and curtailing the industry.

Headlining a panel at the Aug. 20 conference at the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill, titled “Taxation: A Nation Divided” will be Keith Stroup, a nationally recognized public-interest attorney and lobbyist who founded NORML; Tom Rodgers, former senior taxation expert with the Senate Finance Committee and the founder of the first Native American-owned cannabis company; and Ken Bazinet, a legalization policy and campaign strategist now advising clients, partners and allies in the states after 20 years covering the White House for national media outlets.

“We’ve selected a diverse panel with expertise at ever level to help address the need to understand the taxation issue at the federal and state levels, and to rally industry resources to lobby for a fair and equitable tax system,” said attorney Brandon Wyatt, program manager for the BUD Summit.

“Thanks to an antiquated, biased and punitive federal tax law, cannabis entrepreneurs doing business legally face a tax rate of up to 70%. That compares to a 30% federal tax rate for other legal businesses. Clearly the cannabis industry must unite to persuade the federal government to remedy this injustice,” added Wyatt, a decorated disabled Iraq War veteran and national policy spokesman for the Weed for Warriors Project, an advocacy organization working to provide veterans with medical marijuana.

Under Section 280E, of the federal tax code enacted by Congress in 1982, businesses the Internal Revenue Service deems to be “trafficking in controlled substances” are banned from taking advantage of many tax deductions and credits other businesses are allowed to claim. “It’s an unsavory remnant of the failed Reagan-era war on drugs,” Wyatt explained.

Other topics that will be covered at the BUD Summit include “A History of Failed Legislation;” “Innovation: Cultivation & Processing;” “Bud Bytes: Cannabis Gone Digital;” “Business Understanding;” and “Development: Growing a Budding Business.”

The BUD Summitt is a national event, with the primary focus being the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. The Washington, D.C., Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania cannabis industry is ready to explode. Here are some facts:

Washington D.C. has partially legalized recreational use, allows for home-grows, and currently has a fully functional medicinal program
Maryland is on the cusp of granting 15 cultivator licenses and 94 dispensary licenses in 2016
Pennsylvania will offer licenses to 25 processors/growers, along with 50 dispensaries, which may have up to three locations each.
There is an extremely affluent market in Northern Virginia for cannabis related products that migrates toward Washington, D.C. and Maryland.
The DMV has comprises over 6 million people, making it the largest market in the southeast and the sixth largest metropolitan market in the country
With event such as the Capitol CannaShow (www.capitolcannashow.com), The National Cannabis Fest (www.nationalcannabisfestival.com), and 4/2 White House Protest (http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/02/politics/dc-marijuana-protest/) having set the stage, people in the region are interested in the cannabis industry now more than ever.

For more information, please visit our website at http://www.budsdc.com/.

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About the Author

Dr. Jerry Doby Editor-in-Chief of The Hype Magazine, Media and SEO Consultant, Journalist, Ph.D. and retired combat vet. 2023 recipient of The President's Lifetime Achievement Award. Partner at THM Media Group. Member of the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture, the United States Press Agency and ForbesBLK.