New Haven, CT: The imposition of a federal excise tax on the sale of existing state-legal cannabis products would yield an estimated $58 billion in revenue over ten years, according to a Yale University analysis.
The report, published by The Budget Lab at Yale University, proposes a $1.31 per gram federal excise tax on state-legal marijuana products. Revenue from the tax would yield an estimated $58 billion in new federal tax revenue over ten years and an estimated $134 billion over 20 years, presuming existing state policies remained constant. Analysts further estimate that the federal tax would yield over $111 billion over ten years if all 50 states regulated marijuana sales.
According to a prior analysis published by the Marijuana Policy Project, state and local taxes imposed upon the sale of state-legal adult-use marijuana products have yielded over $28 billion in tax revenue.
Full text of the Yale University report, “Federal tax implications of legalizing marijuana,” is available from The Budget Lab.