IRS fines unbanked pot shops for paying federal payroll tax in cash

[RobJohnson]

Legal marijuana businesses without bank accounts are unfairly assessed a 10 percent penalty on federal employee withholding taxes they are required to pay electronically but are forced to pay in cash, according to a lawsuit challenging the practice.

That's because the Internal Revenue Service requires all businesses to pay the quarterly tax by bank wire, an impossibility for hundreds of medical and recreational marijuana shops nationwide that are unable to obtain banking services.

And rather than waive the penalty for cash-only businesses paying the tax on time, the IRS advised the companies to avoid the assessment by using techniques that amount to money-laundering, according to a petition filed in U.S. Tax Court.

In a case that could have enormous tax ramifications for hundreds of marijuana dispensaries nationwide, Allgreens LLC of Denver is challenging the IRS practice of collecting what amounts to millions of dollars in penalties the businesses are helpless to avoid.

Allgreens, a medical marijuana dispensary on Kalamath Street in Denver, says in its petition that it can't pay via the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System because it has no bank account as a result of federal laws that make banks leery of doing business with the marijuana industry.

"It was not that the taxpayer 'did not want' to make use of the EFTP System," Allgreens' attorney Rachel Gillette wrote in the Tax Court petition. "Rather, the taxpayer is unable to secure a bank account due to the nature of its business. With no bank account and no access to banking services, the taxpayer is simply incapable of making (the payments electronically)."

The company also pays cash to cover state and local taxes and is not assessed a penalty.

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_26075425/irs-fines-unbanked-pot-shops-paying-federal-payroll

[JohnnyReb]

Dear IRS:

My records and records of payments are lost.....The dog ate my hard drive and it is somewhere in this bag of dog poop that I am sending you.

Yours truly;
Smokey.

[thundley4]

Doesn't the dollar bill and all other denominations still say "Legal Tender For All Debts, Public and Private" ?

[JohnnyReb]

Doesn't the dollar bill and all other denominations still say "Legal Tender For All Debts, Public and Private" ?

Yes but it doesn't say "federal Debts"....funny when even the government won't even take the paper they print.

[thundley4]

Yes but it doesn't say "federal Debts"....funny when even the government won't even take the paper they print.

I would think that paying a tax to federal government would be considered both private and public.