Patients Mut. Assistance Collective Corp. v. Comm'r
| Decision Date | 29 November 2018 |
| Docket Number | Docket No. 29212-11,Docket No. 30851-12,151 T.C. No. 11,Docket No. 14776-14. |
| Parties | PATIENTS MUTUAL ASSISTANCE COLLECTIVE CORPORATION d.b.a. HARBORSIDE HEALTH CENTER, Petitioner v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Respondent |
| Court | United States Tax Court |
California medical-marijuana dispensary P deducted I.R.C. section 162 business expenses and adjusted for indirect COGS per the I.R.C. section 263A UNICAP rules for producers. R determined that P's sole trade or business was trafficking in a controlled substance and that I.R.C. section 280E prevented it from deducting business expenses. R also determined that P had to calculate COGS using the I.R.C. section 471 regulations for resellers and was liable for accuracy-related penalties. P argued that I.R.C. section 280E didn't apply to it, that it was a producer, and that a dismissed civil-forfeiture action precluded a deficiency action.
Held: The Government's dismissal with prejudice of a civil-forfeiture action against P does not bar deficiency determinations.
Held, further, I.R.C. section 280E prevents P from deducting ordinary and necessary business expenses.
Held, further, during the years at issue P was engaged in only one trade or business, which was trafficking in a controlled substance.
Held, further, P must adjust for COGS according to the I.R.C. section 471 regulations for resellers.
Henry G. Wykowski and Matthew A. Williams, for petitioner.
Nicholas J. Singer and Julie Ann Fields, for respondent.
Patients Mutual owns what may well be the largest marijuana dispensary in America. To the Commissioner that just makes it a giant drug trafficker, unentitled to the usual deductions that legitimate businesses can claim, unable even to capitalize its indirect costs into its inventory, and subject to penalties for taking contrary positions on its tax returns for the tax years ending July 31, 2007 through 2012. Patients Mutual wants to be treated like any other business because it follows California law, it does more than distribute marijuana, and the federal government already decided not to pursue a civil-forfeiture action against it.
Under federal law marijuana is a Schedule I controlled substance. See Controlled Substances Act, Pub. L. No. 91-513, sec. 202, 84 Stat. at 1249 (). This means that under federal law the manufacture, distribution, dispensation, or possession of marijuana--even medical marijuana recommended by a physician--is prohibited. See id. sec. 841(a); Californians Helping to Alleviate Med. Problems, Inc. v. Commissioner (CHAMP), 128 T.C. 173, 181 (2007) (citing United States v. Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Coop., 532 U.S. 483 (2001)).
Under California law, things are somewhat different. In 1996 California voters adopted Proposition 215--the California Compassionate Use Act of 1996 (CCUA)--to "ensure that seriously ill Californians have the right to obtain and use marijuana for medical purposes." See Cal. Health & Safety Code sec. 11362.5(b)(1)(A) (West 2007). The CCUA provides an exemption from California laws penalizing the possession and cultivation of marijuana for patients and their primary caregivers when the possession or cultivation is for the patient's personal medical purposes and recommended or approved by a physician. Id. sec. 11362.5(d). California later legalized collective or cooperative cultivation of marijuana for medicinal purposes. Id. sec. 11362.775; see also People v. Colvin, 137 Cal. Rptr. 3d 856, 860 (Ct. App. 2012). These laws led to the formation of the first marijuana dispensaries.2
Steve DeAngelo saw these early dispensaries--which he described as being run by either well-meaning marijuana activists with no business experience or "thug operators"--and realized patients needed a better option. So in 2005 DeAngelo cofounded Patients Mutual Assistance Collective Corporation d.b.a. Harborside Health Center (Harborside) to be the "gold standard" in medical-marijuana dispensaries. His goal was to create a place where marijuana could be distributed responsibly, that was focused on patient care, and that provided benefits to both patients and the community. Harborside opened its doors in October 2006 and has grown into a booming business with more than 100,000 patient visits per year. It also generated a gusher of revenue during the years at issue: Year Nonmarijuana sales revenue Marijuana sales revenue Total revenue Marijuana percentage 2007
$487 $5,448,635 $5,449,122 99.99 2008
3,990 10,916,914 10,920,904 99.96 2009
16,878 17,334,597 17,351,475 99.90 2010
42,492 22,047,372 22,089,864 99.81 2011
58,588 20,895,823 20,954,411 99.72 2012
320,651 25,199,997 25,520,648 98.74 Total 443,086 101,843,338 102,286,424 99.57
At all relevant times Harborside operated out of an approximately 7,500-square-foot space that had a reception area, healing room, purchasing office, processing room, clone room, and multipurpose room. The facility also had a large sales floor, offices, storage areas, restrooms, and a break room with a kitchen.
But operating a dispensary is no small task. DeAngelo had to make sure Harborside complied with California and local laws. This included getting proper permits, running as a nonprofit, and operating under a "closed-loop" system. Harborside interpreted the "closed-loop" requirement to mean that all of its marijuana must be provided by its patients; sold exclusively to its patients; handled only by its employees, all of whom were its patients; and not diverted into the illegal market. How Harborside achieved all of this is important, so we will start with how Harborside sourced and processed its inventory.
Harborside sold a wide variety of products, which we will divide into four main groups--clones, marijuana flowers, marijuana-containing products, and non-marijuana-containing products.
Clones are cuttings from a female cannabis plant that can be transplanted and used to cultivate marijuana. Harborside bought clones from clone nurseries, cared for them while they were in its store, repackaged them, and then sold them to its patients. It stored the clones in a clone room and sold them at a clone counter--the portion of the floor space dedicated to clone sales. During the years at issue Harborside had at least four employees who spent their time entirely in the purchase and sale of clones.
The Court learned at trial that it's not the leaves of the marijuana plant, but its flowers--or buds--that people can smoke.3 Harborside purchased all of its marijuana flowers from its patient-growers. Some of these growers promised to sell what they cultivated back to Harborside, and Harborside gave them eitherseeds or clones to get started. Other growers, however, bought seeds and clones from Harborside. However they acquired their starter supplies, growers who were interested in selling to Harborside had to sign a cultivation agreement and were encouraged to take one of Harborside's free grow classes and follow its best-practices guides.
Once a grower had cultivated, harvested, trimmed, flushed, dried, and cured his marijuana buds, he would bring them to Harborside to sell. Harborside had a purchasing office to inspect and test the incoming marijuana. Harborside would reject marijuana if it wasn't properly cured, if it hadn't been sufficiently trimmed, if it had an incurable safety issue such as pathogenic mold, or if it didn't contain the right "cannabinoid profile." If, for example, Harborside was in need of a strain of marijuana that was rich in CBD,4 it might reject a batch of marijuana that was rich in THC.5 There were times Harborside rejected the "vast majority" of the bud that growers brought in, and a grower whose marijuana was rejected got no compensation (though he was free to sell it to another collective if he could).
On the other hand, if Harborside agreed to buy the marijuana, it would negotiate a price with the grower--typically enough to cover the grower's actual growing expenses and a reasonable amount for his time and labor. It stored the marijuana in a vault--a reinforced concrete room with a bank-vault door and biometric locks--and sent a sample of the marijuana out for testing by a third-party laboratory. If all went well, the marijuana would go to a processing room where it was reinspected, remanicured, retrimmed, and then weighed, packaged, and labeled. Harborside staff would put it on display on the sales floor or put it back in the vault until needed. Harborside had at least three employees dedicated to acquiring inventory, at least four devoted to managing inventory, and still others whose sole job was to process the bulk marijuana and ready it for resale.
Harborside's marijuana-containing products included edibles, beverages, extracts, concentrates, oils, topicals, and tinctures--marijuana-infused alcohol, vinegar, or glycerin. Harborside bought these items from other collectives, tested them, repackaged them if they came in bulk or needed child-proof packaging, relabeled them, and then sold them to its own patients. Harborside's human-resources director credibly estimated that about 55% to 60% of its employees' total time was spent on buying and processing marijuana--both the buds and marijuana-containing products--and another 25% to 30% selling it.
Harborside also sold non-marijuana-containing products. These included branded gear such as shirts, hats, and pins; nonbranded gear such as socks and hemp bags; and a variety of other products including books, dabbing equipment,6 rolling papers, and lighters. Harborside bought these items from outside vendors, stored them, and resold them to patients. Depending on the volume on hand, Harborside stored the non-marijuana-containing products on the...
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