{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"KZYX News","title":"Board says paying taxes is a requirement for permit renewal","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":389,"description":"April 26, 2022 — The Board of Supervisors voted last week to require payment of cannabis taxes to renew permits, and asked the Executive Office to come back at a future meeting with more numbers about what it would mean to lower the tax rate. \r\nIn 2016, Mendocino County voters passed Measure AI, an ordinance stating that growers are liable for a 2.5% tax on their gross receipts, which amounts to a yearly minimum of $1200-$5000, depending on the size of the grow. With the price plummeting, the cannabis business sector across the state has been clamoring for tax relief. \r\nSupervisor Ted Williams argued for a reduction, saying, “It almost doesn’t matter if theoretically, the arithmetic of however many cultivators we have times about $5,000, what that would generate for us, if we put them out of business.” \r\nCounty staff estimates that currently, $6.8 million in cannabis tax revenue has been uncollected, but between calendars not aligning, a software system that requires an expensive update, and a few missing pieces in the procedure for collecting, hard numbers are hard to come by.\r\nSupervisor John Haschak summarized the knowledge gaps, telling his colleagues that, “I’m just trying to figure out the implications to our budget if we do this. We have so many unknowns that it’s really hard to say what’s going to happen with it. And then if we require tax compliance, at this point, we don’t know how many people we would make pay who aren't paying right now.”\r\nWilliams asked Acting Treasurer-Tax Collector Julie Forrester how many people in the cannabis program are currently delinquent on paying their taxes. She told him that for the calendar year 2021, there are 551 cultivation permits that are unrecorded, 97 flat tax payments that were unrecorded, and eight dispensaries — or about half of the permit holders. \r\nForrester said operators will have another tax bill at the end of May, in what’s called a true-up, “Which amounts to a little over $3 million. In my understanding,...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/xZpAumwbhFUpJUYcwaQ1-q6snzOyqAm13l7cW6AWPCM/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9mMzkz/NjAwNjc2OWMyZmFk/YWY2YTdmYjI5M2Mz/YWMxNy5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}