Cannabis Distributors
The First Quarter 2018 Cannabis
Tax Return Is Due April 30, 2018

Your cannabis tax return and payment of the cannabis taxes for the period January 1, 2018, through March 31, 2018, are due by April 30, 2018. To assist you in preparing the cannabis tax return, watch our Filing a Cannabis Tax Return for Cannabis Distributors video located on the Tax Guide for Cannabis Businesses.

The electronic cannabis returns are now available online. You may access the online return on our website from the Log In page by using your User ID and Password, or your Express Login Code and the Account Number.

As a cannabis distributor, you are responsible for reporting and paying both the cannabis excise tax collected from retailers to whom you sold or transferred cannabis or cannabis products, and the cultivation tax you collected from cultivators and manufacturers. You will report both these cannabis taxes on the same electronic return. Below are general instructions to correctly report the excise and cultivation taxes on the cannabis return.

Cannabis Excise Tax
To report the excise tax, you must enter the average market price of your sales or transfers of cannabis or cannabis products to a retailer during the reporting period in which the sale or transfer occurred. You must separately enter the total average market price on sales of medicinal cannabis and on sales of adult-use cannabis; there is a separate line on the return for each. The cannabis return will automatically compute the excise tax due based on the amounts entered.

The “Add Excess Excise Tax Collected, if any” box is used to report:

• Any amount of tax that was collected in excess of the amount of tax that is due and was not returned to the retailer and/or retail purchaser.
• The cannabis excise tax retailers paid to you on cannabis or cannabis products that were not purchased from you prior to January 1, 2018, and sold at retail on or after
  January 1, 2018.

Cultivation Tax
To report the cultivation tax, you must enter the category (flowers, leaves, or fresh cannabis plant) and ounces of cannabis that you acquired from a cultivator or a manufacturer during the reporting period that the cannabis enters the commercial market (that is, passes the required testing and quality assurance review). You must separately enter the weight and category for medicinal cannabis and for adult-use cannabis. The cannabis return will automatically compute the cultivation tax due based on the amounts entered.