Tax court ruling on 280E case could come this month

A ruling from the U.S. Tax Court on whether the 280E provision should not apply to state-licensed marijuana businesses could come before the end of the year.

The case – which was tried in mid-2016 by San Francisco attorney Henry Wykowski – has the potential to reshape the U.S. cannabis industry by making law-abiding MJ companies truly profitable.

“The court previously advised me that we should expect a decision by the end of the year, and that date is approaching,” Wykowski wrote in an email to Marijuana Business Daily.

“Tax court decisions are notoriously slow, so I do not read anything into the delay one way or the other,” he continued. “I’m not interested in a fast decision, I want the right one striking down 280E or providing clarity as to how it should be applied.

“Next year is fine with me as long as we prevail.”

A brief was recently filed in another Tax Court case involving 280E, and there was another in which the Tax Court sided with the IRS over a Colorado dispensary in an October ruling, The Cannabist reported.

But the IRS win was based on the dispensary not providing business records to justify their deductions.