Federally legal cannabis could generate $106 billion in tax revenue

Federally+legal+cannabis+could+generate+%24106+billion+in+tax+revenue

If cannabis were fully legalized under federal law, the plant could generate $105.6 billion in tax revenue, according to numbers from New Frontier Data. Legalization nationwide could also produce 1 million new jobs by 2025.

“Under the new business tax rate of 21 percent, the Trump tax cuts will come as welcome relief to cannabis business owners who already face tax hurdles because of 280E,” New Frontier reports.

Section 280E of the Internal Revenue Service’s code currently keeps state-legal cannabis companies from legally deducting everyday business expenses, meaning these companies can face effective tax rates reaching 70 percent.

“Lower tax rates may provide cannabis business owners greater capacity to grow and create more jobs,” New Frontier continued.

If social cannabis use was legalized in every state today, an excess of 654,000 jobs would be created and that number is expected to jump to 1 million in seven years.

“Full legalization would result in more legal businesses entering the market, more consumers participating in the legal market, and more employees on official payrolls, resulting in $3.3 billion in payroll taxes,” New Frontier states. “By 2025, payroll deductions would increase to $5.3 billion.”

New Frontier predicts tax revenue would reach $46 billion by 2025 if the sales at both the federal and state level implemented a 15 percent tax.

“This amount of revenue would be entirely new revenue to the U.S. Treasury, as there are currently no federal sales or excise taxes,” New Frontier said. “By combining the business tax revenues, the payroll withholdings based on the theoretical employment required to support the industry, and the 15 percent retail sales tax, one can calculate the total federal tax revenue potential of legalization: The combined total is estimated to be $105.6 billion.”