The Tax Consequences of Legal Cannabis

Abstract

We explore the tax revenue consequences of legalizing recreational cannabis in Canada. We build, calibrate, and simulate a two-level nested demand model in which legal and illegal cannabis are differentiated products and that incorporates econometric estimates of critical parameters. First, we find that sales tax and excise tax revenues accruing from legalization may be fully offset by declines in revenues from alcohol and tobacco. Second, and in contrast to excise and sales tax revenue, new revenue will accrue from personal income and corporate profits taxes. Using some available information on the wage structure of cannabis-producing corporations and imposing a Pareto distribution on incomes within the industry, we obtain an estimate of personal income tax revenues. To compute corporate profits tax revenue, we use priors on labour and capital shares and simulate the results of assumptions of debt leverage. We also estimate the private dollar value of legalization to individuals using a utility function approach. Per user, our results suggest a value roughly equal to $500 per annum. The results of this study may carry over to high-sin-tax economies contemplating legalization.