When it comes to businesses – especially those in the medical marijuana field – paying their correct business taxes, there is a new sheriff in town, so to speak.
Misti Kitson is the newlyelected county tax assessor and she was horrified to learn many of the business tax bills were incorrectly coded, meaning there was a lot of underpayment to the county. Other businesses simply did not return their paperwork outlining the business-personal property that should be taxed.
“They’ve gotten to do whatever they wanted to do here,” Kitson told the Blaine County Commissioners at their Feb. 21 meeting.
Shops are supposed to turn in a list of their inventory. For dispensaries, that means the product they sell as well as computers, other office equipment and furnishings. However, Kitson said, most of them did not account for the inventory.
To simplify matters, the dispensaries in the county – there are seven -- have all been placed on a square foot assessment method. That same assessment is not applied to the entire building, if it isn’t used as store front or inventory storage. Those are the only spaces assessed by the square foot value of $50. The fixtures and such are additional inventory and should be listed as such.
The growers, too, are facing re-assessment. There are some 20 registered grows in the county, and the assessment process for them can be a little tricky. If the plants are growing out-of-doors they are con- . If they are in an indoor facility or greenhouse, they are assessed at a different rate. In each case the fencing is considered business personal for tax purposes.
Some growers have been lax in their reporting, or the business was incorrectly coded. Kitson and her office staff are working to correct that and bring each grow into compliance. Some, she said, hadn’t returned any paperwork to the tax assessor’s office and fell through the cracks.
“They got away with not paying anything,” she said.
Blaine County Sheriff Travis Daughtery said he has arranged to bring in a deputy from Pottawatomie County who is assigned to the tax assessor’s office there and specializes in working with marijuana growers and their unique tax filing requirements. That shared training and information will help Blaine County figure out what materials should be taxed at what rate, so that the county gets its fair share of the income the budding industry produces.
It is important to the county to catch up and modify the current tax roles and collection processes, Kitson said. “We are losing a ton of money,” she added.