By Ben Giles | Arizona Capitol Times
Taxing personal property at medical marijuana dispensaries and growth operations may net Maricopa County schools more than $1 million, and likely more once the county assessor completes audits of taxes owed in previous years.
Maricopa County Assessor Paul Petersen announced that the county’s 109 dispensaries, growth operations and medical marijuana card certification offices were notified for the first time this year that they owe taxes on business personal property. Businesses are required to remit the value of that property – which essentially covers everything in their buildings that isn’t nailed to the floor, except for inventory – annually to the county.
“While the cannabis industry has gained substantial acceptance in Arizona, part of becoming an accepted business is paying your taxes. Operators of dispensaries and other cannabis related industries will have to carefully plan for what could be a substantial new business expense that they may not have been fully anticipating. Fortunately, just like other taxpayers, medical marijuana industry participants have the same ability to contest the amount of tax the County says they owe. I suspect attorneys like me will be busy helping these new businesses navigate these business taxes to make sure they are not paying more than their fair share of taxes.”
