Cannabis: excise tax: cultivation tax.

The Control, Regulate and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA) , an initiative measure approved as Proposition 64 at the November 8, 2016, statewide general election, authorizes a person who obtains a state license under AUMA to engage in commercial adult-use cannabis activity pursuant to that license and applicable local ordinances. AUMA imposes an excise tax on upon purchasers of cannabis or cannabis products sold in this state at the rate of 15% of the average market price of any retail sale by a cannabis retailer, and a separate cultivation tax on harvested cannabis that enters the commercial market, as specified. Existing law, beginning January 1, 2020, requires the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration to adjust the cultivation tax rate for inflation each calendar year, except for the 2021 calendar year, in which existing law prohibited the department from adjusting for inflation unless the adjustment was for an inflation rate less than zero. Existing law requires revenues from the excise and cultivation taxes to be deposited into the California Cannabis Tax Fund, which is continuously appropriated for specified purposes. This bill would suspend the imposition of the cultivation tax from July 1, 2023, to July 1, 2028, and would discontinue the requirement that the department adjust the cultivation tax rate for inflation for the 2023 calendar year and during the suspension. The bill would increase, from July 1, 2023, until July 1, 2028, the excise tax by an additional percentage that the Department of Finance estimates will generate the amount of revenue that would have been collected pursuant to the cultivation tax. AUMA authorizes legislative amendment of its provisions with a 23 vote of both houses, without submission to the voters, to further its purposes and intent. This bill would declare that its provisions further the purposes and intent of AUMA. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.