The one- day tax holiday was caused by an error in the computation of the state’s over- all revenue last 2014 followed by the voting of 10% percent sales tax for the shoppers and 15% excise tax for growers.
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Voters were given an estimate for overall state tax collections that proved short, triggering a mandatory reset of the new tax. The figures covered the first full fiscal year in which over-21s could legally buy marijuana and alcohol.
“I probably saved $45,000 before lunch”, said a smiling Tim Cullen, owner of the Colorado Harvest Co. chain of marijuana dispensaries.
Mason Tvert, director of communications for the Marijuana Policy Project and a huge supporter of Amendment 64 said in a statement, “Marijuana taxes have been incredibly productive over the past year, so this tax holiday is a much-deserved day off”, The Daily Caller reported.
Lawmakers decided to waive the taxes only for a single day, though voters will have to return to polls in November to authorize the state to keep some $50 million in pot taxes collected in 2014.
The state has made millions from taxes on marijuana, but not as much as expected.
Colorado saw a sales increase past year in all three tax classes of alcohol.
A new report from an organization formed to disrupt drug trafficking lists a litany of negative side effects from legalized marijuana use in Colorado.
“They’ve been setting up doing their advertisements and telling their customers to come on down for special deals”, said Tyler Henson, president of the Colorado Cannabis Chamber of Commerce. Pot cultivators and retailers are also exempt from the state’s 15-percent excise tax during the short recess, a financial quirk that officials have anticipated many stores will take advantage of.
He noted with regard to the fatalities that other state agencies have said one year of data is too little to draw conclusions on, and other drugs and alcohol are often involved in these fatalities.
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Taxes will revert to normal on Thursday. Fortunately for cannabis lovers, the law taxing recreational marijuana passed in 2103, qualifying it for the day-long suspension.
