Accounting and the US cannabis industry: federal financial regulations and the perspectives of Certified Public Accountants and cannabis businesses owners

Background: Cannabis-related businesses (CRBs), in states where cannabis is legal, may be unable to obtain professional financial services including banking, insurance, and accounting because of federal laws and regulations. This qualitative study investigated the following research questions. 1. Why are some Certified Public Accountants unwilling to provide services to cannabis-related businesses? 2. How do CRBs compensate for lack of Certified Public Accountant services? 3. What does a certified public accountant need to know about the cannabis industry prior to engaging to provide services to CRBs?

Methods: Data for this grounded-theory qualitative study was gathered from twenty-three semi-structured phone and face-to-face interviews. Ten cannabis-related business owners were recruited from a convenience sample after attempting a broad recruiting effort. Thirteen Certified Public Accountants with active licenses in Colorado or Washington State participated from firms of varying size and willingness to serve the cannabis industry. The individual interviews, which lasted from twenty minutes to more than an hour, focused on the participants’ perceptions of the complexities of accounting and tax compliance for cannabis businesses.

Results: Eight of the thirteen Certified Public Accountants interviewed would not provide services to the cannabis industry with the primary reason given that cannabis is federally illegal. All ten of the cannabis business owners interviewed indicated they engage a Certified Public Accountant to provide tax services. Seven out of ten CRB participants and ten of the thirteen Certified Public Accountant participants indicated that extensive industry knowledge is needed for an accountant to competently provide services to a CRB.

Conclusions: CRB owners need to carefully consider the industry knowledge and experience of a potential Certified Public Accountant prior to engaging them. This study shows that US Certified Public Accountants should weigh the risk of federal prosecution and potential loss of the Certified Public Accountant license when deciding whether to serve a CRB client. The study also found that a Certified Public Accountant must commit to acquiring and maintaining substantial specialized knowledge related to tax Code Section 280E, internal controls for a cash-only or cash-intensive business, and the workings of the cannabis industry under the current regulatory conditions.