By Chris Roberts
Taxes are Phil Ting’s business — when the assessor-recorder isn’t campaigning for San Francisco mayor, that is. But when Ting recently took stock of the Bay Area tax scene on medical marijuana, he realized that San Francisco could be bringing in more cash.
Every other major Bay Area city levies a gross-receipts tax on its medical marijuana dispensaries. And while every California medical cannabis club pays 9.5 percent in state sales taxes — it’s only in cities with a special tax including Los Angeles and San Jose, where local officials skim an extra five and seven percent off of the top.
And this is certainly paying off: San Jose hauled in $290,000 in its first month of taxing medical marijuana and Los Angeles is banking on exceeding that.
