Commercial marijuana growers statewide have another avenue to deposit their cash taxes rather than traveling to Anchorage, the state Tax Division said.
In an article published last week, the Tax Division said that growers must travel to Alaska's largest city to deposit excise tax payments, regardless of where they live, as it could only afford to invest in one drop deposit box.
In reply to the news, readers asked whether they could use registered mail to send currency to the state. The answer: Yes.
"If the cash is mailed to our Anchorage office, we'd be happy to accept it," Brandon Spanos, deputy director of the Department of Revenue's Tax Division, said in an email.
"We would, however, want the taxpayer to let us know it's coming and to ensure that we need to sign for the delivery," he added.
Spanos also noted that marijuana sales are illegal federally, and wrote that he wasn't familiar with the U.S. Postal Service's stance on mailing marijuana cash. "The state can't be responsible for the cash until we receive it," Spanos wrote.
So can businesses legally use the Postal Service to mail marijuana money to the state?
"Yes," Postal Service Alaska District spokesperson Ernie Swanson replied in an email.
That position differs from the Postal Service's stance on mailing marijuana advertisements, which it says remains illegal under federal law.
Once Alaska's commercial marijuana industry gets up and running later this year, growers will pay excise taxes every month. The division is proposing $50 per ounce of flower or bud, and $15 per ounce for the rest of the plant.