San Diego

Cannabis Business Tax Brings $3.6M in Revenue to San Diego

The Cannabis Business Tax was implemented in January after recreational marijuana use became legal.

The city of San Diego has made more than $3.6 million in revenue from the Cannabis Business Tax (CBT) through the first three quarters of 2018, NBC 7 has learned.

The CBT was implemented in January after recreational marijuana use became legal.

The CBT currently taxes recreational marijuana sales at 5 percent and it will increase to 8 percent on July 1, 2019. Any time after next July the San Diego City Council can reduce it as low as 0 percent or raise it to a maximum of 15 percent.

Cultivators are also taxed under the CBT.

The city of Denver, Colorado, which has had a similar tax in place since 2014, made almost $48 million in revenue last year. Denver's population is about half of San Diego’s but has substantially more cannabis retail outlets.

Chula Vista, La Mesa, and Vista all passed a Marijuana tax in the midterm election.

Here are the quarterly revenue numbers for the CBT:

1st quarter (Jan. – March) - $584,107.12

2nd quarter (April - June) - $2,185,685.67

3rd quarter (July – Sept.) - $874,656.14

Total: $3,644,448.93

Revenue from the CBT goes into the city’s general fund.

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