Nevada marijuana firm accused of failing to pay state taxes

A marijuana cultivator and producer in Washoe County could lose its license after it avoided paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes, according to a complaint filed by the Cannabis Compliance Board this week.

NNV Operations I, INC, which operates under the name Silver State Trading, had numerous unpaid or underpaid wholesale marijuana taxes to the Department of Taxation dating back to June 2019, according to the complaint filed by the board. The state collects a 15 percent wholesale cultivation and production tax on marijuana in the state.

The Nevada attorney general’s office, which prepared the complaint for the Compliance Board, recommended that the company’s four licenses — they hold medical and recreational licenses for cultivation and production — be revoked as well as a $90,000 fine if the board deems the violations intentional, or $220,000 if unintentional.

The company paid no taxes for 11 of 12 months from June 2019 to May 2020. The company underpaid their taxes on the other month, according to the complaint. NNV also did not pay wholesale marijuana taxes for February, March or April of this year.

The complaint details more than $468,000 in unpaid taxes from the company, and an additional $111,000 in penalties and interest owed for those tax debts.

The company’s owners signed payment plans with the Department of Taxation in June in order to pay back the roughly $528,000 in delinquent taxes, penalties and interest due to the state at the time.

An investigator looked into the company’s tax compliance in November after three checks submitted as tax payments by the company between July and August were returned by the bank due to insufficient funds, the complaint said.

A phone number listed for the company was no longer in service Thursday. An email address for the company no longer works.

The Compliance Board said it does not comment on disciplinary matters.

Intentionally failing to pay taxes is considered a Category I violation, which can lead to a company losing its cannabis license in Nevada and make the license holder ineligible to receive another license.

Contact Colton Lochhead at [email protected]. Follow @ColtonLochhead on Twitter.