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Overview of 2018 Cannabis Delivery Regulations, Taxes

09 Oct 2018 by Sonia Luna

Compliance is extremely important in the highly-regulated cannabis industry. To help you optimize your processes in compliance with regulations, we’ve provided an overview of some cannabis regulations in California as of 2018.

1) Complete and keep your invoice

The process for cannabis delivery is fairly simple. The customer calls and/or secures an order online. The employee then reviews and confirms the patient data and the age of the customer. The personnel packages items to be delivered, and it goes out for delivery with either printed or electronic copy of the invoice.

 

But aside from these general steps, the regulations specify that the invoice should have these nine specific items:

 

  1. Name and address of the retailer
  2. Name and employee number of the delivery employee
  3. First name and employee number of the person who prepared the order for delivery
  4. First name of the customer and a retailer-assigned customer number for the person who requested the delivery
  5. Date and time the delivery request was made
  6. Delivery address
  7. A detailed description of all cannabis goods requested for delivery including weight, volume, or any other accurate measure of the amount of all the goods
  8. Total amount paid for the cannabis delivery including any taxes or fees, cost of the cannabis products, and other charges
  9. Date and time the delivery was completed, and signature of the recipient
 

You also have to keep the patient data along with invoicing and other accounting records for seven years to be compliant in the cannabis delivery regulations.

2) Take note of the onboard retail limit

One of the things to remember in the cannabis delivery business is the onboard retail limit. Based on 2018 California regulations, a cannabis delivery vehicle should only carry $10,000 retail value of marijuana at any time. Onboarding products with more than the said price could warrant a serious violation.

When delivering discounted or free cannabis products to loyal customers, you should also take note that law enforcers will still look at the total actual retail value, and not the discounted price.

3) Be mindful of taxes

 Here is some additional information about cannabis taxes and laws in California this 2018 which concerns distributors:

Beginning January 1, 2018, distributors who sell or transfer cannabis or cannabis products to a cannabis retailer are required to collect the cannabis excise tax from the retailer.

 

Cannabis retailers who acquired cannabis or cannabis products prior to January 1, 2018, upon which they did not pay the cannabis excise tax to a distributor, must collect the 15 percent cannabis excise tax from their customers.

 

Retailers must pay the excise tax on those sales by the 15th of the following month in which they collected the tax to a licensed cannabis distributor with whom they have a business relationship (that is, a distributor that they purchase or acquire cannabis or cannabis products from beginning on January 1, 2018).

 

Commit one violation in the regulations, and you may face heavy penalties or, at worst, suspension of your marijuana distribution license. Thus, it is recommended to optimize your processes to assure that you’re adhering to the recent regulations.
 
Aviva Spectrum helps vendors stay compliant and improve profits by optimizing cannabis delivery. We are practical cannabis compliance problem solvers. We offer free consultation for all cannabis clients. Connect with us today by scheduling a consultation with us here.
 
If you’re looking to select a software to save some time in running your cannabis delivery and other business processes, you can download our Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) selection checklist to help you get started.

 

 

2019 Forecast for California Cannabis Companies 

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