cpa kareyna miller keeps up with the changing landscape.
by liz gold
cannabizcpa.pro
cpa kareyna miller has always had a connection to the cannabis industry.
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since 2009, she has been an activist and patient, but this past summer she put her traditional public accounting background to work for the industry, starting lc solutions michigan.
a former financial statement auditor who went into private industry for six years and didn’t practice accounting too heavily, miller wanted to put her experience to good use.
“when it became legal here on the commercial scale, i had all these skills that i wasn’t using to my capacity so i thought, ‘why not start this firm and focus on this industry?’”
lc solutions, based in otter lake, michigan, provides clients accrual based bookkeeping, cost accounting strategies, and planning and consulting services. the firm solely specializes in serving michigan’s medical cannabis industry.
in december 2017, michigan began the process of accepting applications for medical marijuana. but the state has had a caregiver model – allowing the growing of limited marijuana only by certified medical users or by caregivers who may serve a maximum of five patients at a time – since 2008.
“we are moving at the same pace of our clients here,” miller said. “there are plenty of dispensaries, but they are not keeping good records or paying taxes. for these businesses that are going in a commercial model, they are required to work with a cpa.”
miller works with two team members who are spread out over the state. her clients are a mix; they include those who are classified in the caregiver/patient model (“large enough as caregivers they could make a living and support themselves and had some need for accounting,”) and new entrepreneurs who are just getting into the commercial medical side.
“a lot of them are trying to break into the industry and they have little or no experience,” miller said of those entrepreneurs. “they see the opportunity and they have the funds to back them up and they are trying to make it.”
the application fees in michigan are steep; according to miller, it’s $6,000 to the state alone, then an additional $5,000 to the municipality in which they want to operate. then the state will have regulatory fees anywhere between $10,000 to $57,000. the pricing for these fees will be set once it knows how many applicants come in, she said. “three percent tax on their revenue for dispensaries will go back to the state and then the state is also requiring different capitalization thresholds,” miller said. “they have to show a net worth based on the license for which they are applying.”
for example, according to miller, an operator will need $500,000 in net assets for class c license, which is the highest level of cultivator for 1,500 plants. the interested party would need a cpa to attest to that in an attestation letter and would need to demonstrate 25 percent of that amount in liquid assets.
“if i describe my clients, they are the entrepreneurs,” she said. “their day jobs are in real estate and financial advising, jobs that allow them to have excess income or an outside investor. i’m not seeing an overabundance of large investors come into play. but they are very entrepreneurial and have a goal in mind and they are going to make it work no matter what they need to do.”
that said, miller’s clients still face obstacles – banking, not surprisingly, being the number one issue. according to miller, there are no banks in michigan that are openly willing to work with cannabis businesses. however, in late december of last year, the department of insurance and financial services issued a statement that said credit unions could no longer deny service to cannabis businesses just based on this fact alone. they must instead go through a formal decision-making and compliance process, weighing the risks and rewards of serving the industry.
“we advise them to keep very good cash receipt records, to record everything they are doing with the cash,” miller said. “some of them have vaults on site; others can get away with having a bank account because either they don’t tell the bank what they are doing or they have a relationship with the banker. we see a lot of money orders, preloadable debit cards, whatever method they are able to find.”
on the local level, cannabusinesses have municipalities and red tape to contend with. “it’s one thing to find the perfect piece of property and have a business plan in place but then the city is dragging their feet because they haven’t written the ordinance,” she said.
miller said there are very few cpas in michigan so it’s been fairly easy for her firm to attract business. still, aside from word of mouth and referrals, she uses facebook advertising and listings in cannabis publications, and has done direct mail campaigns to dispensaries to get the word out about her business.
“you have to have the right personality for the clients to want to work with you and trust you,” miller said. “this isn’t a typical 8-5 cpa job. i might have clients who email me at 2 a.m. and sometimes i’m up working and i’ll email them back. that’s the service they want.”