beware of pricing by phone.
by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research
cannabizcpa.pro
the production and distribution of cannabis is the newest and most variegated industry in america. some would even say it’s one of the toughest industries in america in which to do business.
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it’s illegal everywhere yet legal in some places, but not legal the same way in all places. the federal government considers it a schedule 1 narcotic right up there with heroin and lsd, yet the internal revenue service is perfectly willing to collect taxes on companies that handle the product.
it’s also willing to audit those companies. more than willing, in fact. eager might be a better word.
ask harry i. shurek, ea, a principal with mca accounting solutions / mycannabisaccountant.com in buford, ga. of his over 60 licensed businesses in the cannabis business in approximately 20 states that he represents, he has already defended his clients in nine audits from various tax agencies.
they all passed their audits reasonably well, but the point is this: the irs and the state and local governments all have their eyes on this legal-illegal industry. and for that reason, shurek advises cannabis businesses to find an accounting firm that really knows what it’s doing.
and that’s not easy. too many firms, hoping to cash in this burgeoning business, claim unwarranted expertise. shurek also had to learn to navigate the intricacies of the industry when he first entered the space.
“when i started working with cannabis clients five years ago, i naively wondered why barely any accountants wanted to be doing that,” he said. “they just didn’t want to deal with stoners, was that the issue? i, too, thought it was just regular accounting. but over the years i’ve learned that that’s not the case. these clients are more complex than the average accounting client, often times with multiple entities and several years of cleanup work and tax filings to be filed or amended.”
finding a good firm
so how’s a new company in a new industry supposed to find a good, new accounting firm?
the first thing is kind of obvious.
“you need someone with public accounting experience,” shurek said. “it could be a cpa or an ea. it’s because experienced public accountants are exposed to so many different kinds of clients and industries. in the cannabis industry, you deal with so many different kinds of businesses … when you have a company that is involved in growing and processing and retailing all at the same time, each of those has a different tax treatment because of irs code 280e and other tax and accounting rules.”
so the second thing he warns about is the accountant who is willing to give an offhand price for services over the phone. he himself needs to really get to know a business before he can estimate the cost of accounting. some companies may need to have their books completely redone from years ago because either the company has sloppy books or a previous accountant steered the company wrong.
one big question for such a firm: how many cannabis clients do you have? if the answer is none or just one, that may not be the right firm.
can you say tetrahydrocannabinol?
a third thing is a little more controversial.
“i think you need an accountant who understands the product,” he said. “i think clients are more comfortable with people who understand cannabis, so they don’t have to explain how it all works. how can someone properly advise you on your business when they do not truly understand your product and your clients?”
production, inventory, manufacturing and financial records in this industry involve not just cost of goods sold and shrinkage but pounds of trim, grams of bud, percentages of thc, cbd edibles, so much sativa, unsexed sour diesel seeds, purple kush as opposed to hindu kush, not to mention blue dream, charlotte’s web, tom cruise purple and various strains of skunk.
and another thing: the cannabis accountant has to know how to treat a business that deals strictly (and necessarily) in cash. they deal in cash because in many states it’s almost impossible to get a bank to accept an account with a cannabis company. the reason is fear of federal repercussions. no bank wants to lose membership in the fdic.
so the accountant has to recognize that somewhere along the supply chain, somebody’s going to be dealing in cash.
“even if they’re not dealing in cash now, they were when they first got started, and they may be again if their bank accounts get closed, which happens all of the time to my clients,” shurek said. “i had one client, we were going over his books from two years before, and he told me about meeting an investor at a gas station with $50,000 in cash in a bag. and that happened twice. in what other industry does it work like that?”
the client also has to understand that a business based on cash transactions is at high risk of federal and state tax agency scrutiny and potential audits. of the cannabis business audits that shurek’s clients have been through, none were over 280e issues. most audits have more to do with state and local tax agencies trying to get additional revenues, rather than irs code, but that is most likely going to change. a recent report from the u.s. treasury inspector general for tax administration recommends increased audits by the irs of cannabis businesses to identify potential non-filers and returns that are not 280e-compliant.
“everybody wants to get all the money they can out of these cannabis businesses,” shurek said of tax agencies. “they know that a lot of them don’t have the best records and they believe they are extremely profitable businesses.”
shurek said he has taken on many clients with bad books. it can take months to fix them. sometimes it involves amending prior tax returns. all this affects his pricing and therefore the price of the client’s current project and ongoing accounting costs.
he also recommends that cannabis businesses avoid any cpa or ea who suggests ignoring the requirements of 280e and filing a tax return just like any other business with regular deductions in the hopes that someday it will go away. that section of the irs code prohibits any deductions other than cost of goods sold for illegal products. yes, that may very well happen, but that’s then, and this is now.
“to willfully ignore a law that you know applies to your industry,” shurek said, “is literally tax fraud.”
accounting is serious, he said. a lot of businesses do not worry about accounting until the irs or the state tax auditor is knocking at their door. and in this particular industry, everything is complicated, and it all has to be perfect. there’s a lot of data to enter, a unique tax structure, a lot of allocation of costs, sales tax processing, a cash log that needs extra scrutiny … it’s actually possible to lose money at the end of the year yet still end up owing six figures in taxes.
shurek’s goal this year is to pick up 50 to 100 new cannabis clients – a significant number, given the amount of work that each client needs. a hundred cannabis clients, he says, is like five or six hundred regular clients in his prior non-cannabis accounting practice. and they shouldn’t be too hard to find. there’s a shortage of qualified accountants, he says, but no shortage of the unqualified who often land a new client because they give an unreasonably low quote over the phone.
“people need to look beyond price,” he said. “they have to look at qualifications. they have to know what the price buys. hire the right person to represent your business now and in the future.”