The story below is from our May/June 2022 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
When Kim White discovered her own need for CBD and hemp products, she also opened a new way to practice as an accountant.
As the growing of hemp and the production of CBD expand throughout the region and the country, niche opportunities are popping up as new uses and new business necessities arise.
Kim White recognized her opportunity quickly and established a solid basic knowledge of the law affecting hemp and CBD accounting. She has become something of the go-to accountant for those new, small businesses in the Roanoke Valley.
Hemp contains less than three percent of THC, the component in cannabis that gets users high, making it substantially different from cannabis (or marijuana).
Like other accountants handling hemp businesses, White believes that since hemp isn’t marijuana, accounting methods for the business should follow agricultural accounting methods that are traditional.
That requires a concentrated focus on compliance, record-keeping and tax limitations. Maintaining accurate records is especially vital.
The 53-year-old White owns Accounting Outside the Box and its sister firm The Mellow Accountant, the former dating from 2006, the later opened last year. A Florida Atlantic University graduate (master’s in forensic accounting), she has “been doing tax and accounting my entire adult life.”
Hemp/CBD first showed up on her radar when “I had clients come to me and ask if I would still do their tax and accounting when they opened a cannabis business. I said ‘of course,’ and promptly started researching why they would ask that. [They asked] because of the taint that is associated with canna.” She investigated “what I needed to do differently in the CBD/hemp/canna world for tax and accounting.”
She discovered that “CBD/hemp operate similar to other businesses but those who wish to expand into canna have a different set of tax laws to follow, since it is illegal on the federal side. That is where my expertise comes in.”
She also developed a personal interest because “I use CBD and hemp products and find they can be beneficial for a variety of things like pain or anxiety.”
There remain serious political questions about CBD/hemp. White says, “With a multi-year roll-out, recreational use of cannabis products appears to still be on track for 2024. The Virginia legislature recently sped up the approval process of medicinal dispensaries for cannabis products to begin their operations in September of this year.”
You can almost hear a sigh when she says, “In the extremely long and complicated rules and regulations that are attached to the legislation (and change very frequently) accountants, lawyers and others in the tax preparation arena must know these new rules as they do not apply to any other business, solely to canna-business, as it’s commonly known.”
There has been considerable growth in the hemp industry in the past couple of years, but continued growth, she says, is “going to depend on the potential laws being considered. I hope we do see it become a multi-billion-dollar industry [as has been predicted by some] because of the health benefits of the products … and the financial benefits of growth in that sector like jobs and tax dollars.”
White plans to keep close tabs on the developments. Her clients will depend on her.
The story above is from our May/June 2022. For more stories, subscribe today or view our FREE digital edition. Thank you for supporting local journalism!
