In this case, Alternative Health Care Advocates provided medical marijuana to individuals in California under California law. Another company, Wellness Management Group, Inc., provided management services to Alternative Health Advocates. These services included hiring employees and managing HR for those employees, paying wages for those employees, paying advertising expenses, paying rent, etc. Wellness did not provide services of that nature or any nature to any other business entity. Wellness made money by collecting fees for its services from Alternative Health Care Advocates.

Under Section 280E of the Internal Revenue Code, businesses that are engaged in trafficking controlled substances cannot take regular business deductions, so they end up paying taxes on their gross receipts less their allowed cost of goods sold (COGS). If an expense doesn’t fit into the category of COGS, a company that is considered to be “trafficking” would have to pay taxes as if the expense hadn’t been incurred in the first place. This is how the effective tax rate for marijuana businesses can be outrageously high.

Marijuana businesses set up management companies for a few reasons. Tax avoidance under 280E can be one of them, but trying to set up a management company structure to avoid 280E-related tax problems can be complex and can backfire. Instead, most of the value of the management company model comes from the ability of the management company to get banking and enter into regular electronic transactions with third parties, including running payroll services. [Read More @ Canna Law Blog]