As you already know, marijuana is on the ballot in our Nov. 4 election. If amendment 2 passes, this will open up a whole slew of pot-based businesses. And with new business comes new taxes. But did you ever stop to think about just how much tax the legalization of marijuana could bring to Florida? Our pals over at Nerd Wallet, a financial advisory company, did the math for us.
In Florida, Nerd Wallet estimates, the legalization of marijuana could bring in $183,408,640 per year in taxes. You read that right: 183 MILLION! Earlier this year, the Florida Office of Economic and Demographic Research estimated that the State of Florida could pull in between $8.3 million and $338 million, putting Nerd Wallet's number right in the middle.
In fact, in legalization were to happen nation-wide, Nerd Wallet predicts:
The U.S. stands to gain, according to our calculations, $3,098,866,907 in state and local taxes per year — that’s more than twice the entire budget of the Small Business Administration in 2013.
Three billion dollars sure could come in handy for the United States, amirite?
To come up with these figures, Nerd Wallet took into consideration the size of the marijuana market in each state and the state's sales tax revenue. You can take a look at how much tax money all the rest of the states could bring in on Nerd Wallet's website.
