Officials in St. Louis, Missouri, have reportedly missed the deadline to begin taxing adult-use cannabis sales, seeing them miss out on an estimated $600k in tax revenues.
According to The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, a new 3% levy on adult-use cannabis sales was put to voters in April this year.
The new tax was billed as a way to combat long standing inequalities in the city, with the newly raised funds, estimated to be around $2.4m a year, set to be put towards education and job training.
After being voted through in April, the city was required to formally notify Missouri’s Department of Revenue of its plans to enact the new tax, and provide the certified election results and further documentation around the ordinance.
According to state rules, after receiving notification new cannabis taxes can take effect on the first day of the second following quarter, meaning that if the paperwork was filed by June 30, the tax could have been implemented in October.
Due to a reported ‘oversight’ the paperwork was not filed until a city finance employee alerted the mayor’s office last Monday.
“We’re grateful that they told us because we had no idea,” said City spokesman Nick Dunne.
The correct paperwork has now been filed, and the city has now received a waiver from the Department of Revenue allowing them to implement the tax from January.
