FAQ: California "arm's length" Excise Tax and Markup

California cannabis retailers engaging in "arm's length" transactions (purchasing cannabis from an outside vendor, as opposed to producing in-house) are required to calculate and pay a standard excise tax to the vendor, and also add a standard markup defined by the state of California (not to be confused with profit margin/profit markup, which is up to you and should be accounted for in your item pricing).

In Green Bits, this excise tax and markup are accounted for when entering new inventory into a manifest.

Receive inventory

Create or accept a manifest according to the standard process, but don't save just yet!

Enter your Excise Tax and Markup Rates

Enter the applicable Markup Rate and Excise Tax Rate. These are subject to change; check with your local tax authority to ensure you're using the correct rates. 

Note that once you've entered your Wholesale Cost Per Unit, Markup Rate, and Excise Tax Rate, Green Bits then automatically calculates your Total Tax Paid to Vendor for the items on this manifest, as well as the Tax Per Unit.

To ensure accuracy, double-check to make sure you're using the correct unit of measure on the Quantity Received field (this defaults to units/"each" - select grams for bulk flower or other weight-based inventory).