It’s no secret that the cannabis industry is booming with revenue. Yet, businesses are heavily burdened with rules and regulations—making accounting professionals an invaluable asset to owners, operators, and investors in this niche. Since everything is new, including the laws and guidelines, the technology and best practices haven’t caught up to the needs of the cannabis industry. This delay makes it incredibly difficult for accounting professionals to properly serve these businesses. For example, §280E prohibits cannabis companies from taking deductions like ordinary businesses, creating a number of additional challenges that experienced accounting professionals must be prepared and properly trained to support.

With the lack of resources and the complex rules and regulations, accountants don’t know where to start or how to help their current clients maintain compliance, support them through banking challenges, meet their ongoing licensing requirements, and more. The reality is that the accounting needs for cannabis businesses have dramatically increased over the years, creating an incredible amount of opportunity to do enjoyable, meaningful work with companies that are growing to millions of dollars in a short period of time.

This will not be another discussion about §280E and §471. Rather, this session will be a practical discussion about the day-to-day accounting requirements when working with cannabis companies in 2023.

Learning Objectives:

• Recognize opportunities in U.S. cannabis businesses


• Name compliance and marijuana tax requirements


• List ways that make cannabis accounting and tax different from accounting and tax in other industries


• Identify accounting considerations, including what makes cannabis accounting so difficult


• Evaluate what constitutes a typical week as a cannabis accountant