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m0jon3s

Hi, I am doing a paper on the red distric so I had a couple quesitons. Is there any web sites where I can find the legal process that the red district had to go through? Also where can I find a list of the current laws inside the red district? Last question is whether marijuana is taxed or not. If so where can I find information on this matter?

Thank you.

 

solutions

Well, the red light district is the unofficial name of a part of the centre of Amsterdam ("De Wallen"), so the area is subject to the same laws that apply elsewhere in the Netherlands. Dutch law gives the Major and city-counsil-board (don't know exact english term, in Dutch: Burgemeester & Wethouders) of a city the option to give 'general local provisions' (APV: algemene plaatselijke verordening). This way the city can make extra regulations for a particular area, such as giving the police the authority to randomly frisk people (without suspecting an individual). The city also determines the closing times for bars/coffeeshops etc and issues licenses for coffeeshops.

A rather dominant part of the red light district is prostitution. It was legalized in the Netherlands in 2000. Now it is a legal profession, so the ladies (& men) can get social security benefits and have to pay taxes. It also means a lot of regulations, eg. for hygene (sp?) like washing silk underwear at 90 degrees Celsius. This site (English) has the text of the prostitution law and information on the history of prostitution in Amsterdam online.

I'm not sure if this answers your question, if not please be more specific and I'd be happy to see if I can answer it. As for dutch laws, I don't know a site that has them online in English Ehhh, no ....... and yes .

No VAT: There is no value added tax (VAT/ 'BTW' in Dutch) on MJ. The Dutch tax administration wanted to tax the sale of marijuana in coffeshops. One shop took the matter to the Amsterdam court, which asked the European court for a ruling on the matter. The court ruled in the Happy Family case that no VAT could be collected for illegal goods:

"( 1 ) Article 2 ( 1 ) of the Sixth Council Directive of 17 May 1977 on the harmonization of the laws of the Member States relating to turnover taxes - Common system of value-added tax : uniform basis of assessment -- must be interpreted as meaning that no liability to turnover tax arises upon the unlawful supply of narcotic drugs within the territory of a Member State in so far as the products in question are not confined within economic channels strictly controlled by the competent authorities for use for medical and scientific purposes .
( 2 ) That also applies to the unlawful supply of narcotic drugs derived from hemp even where, pursuant to a selective prosecution policy, the authorities of a Member State do not systematically bring criminal proceedings against small-scale retail dealing in such drugs." Source (full text of the ruling in Enlish).

Yes, VAT on the plant In another case (LJN-nummer: AA9242 Zaaknr: 34781) source: www.rechtspraak.nl (only in dutch) the sale of marijuana plants and seeds by a growshop were ruled taxable for VAT, since the plant itself is not an illegal drug (a tad simplified, the court ruled the plant is not absolutely illegal, even if it is illegal if used for the production of an illegal drug (mj), it is legal for scientific and medical use)

Yes, marijuana profit is taxed: Since coffeeshops are legal enterprises they are subject to taxation. Beside wage tax and VAT on legal goods the profit of coffeeshops is taxed with income tax or corporate tax, depending on whether the owner is a natural person or corporation. This taxation also applies to profit made with the sale of marijuana.

Since the supply of mj to the coffeeshops (backdoor) is not decriminalised the shops can't show receipts for the mj they buy, so neither the shops nor the tax administartion have a way of proving exactly what amount was purchased or what was paid for it. In this gray area the coffeeshop has to provide a plausible administration. The following cases were the result of on the scene investigations by the Horeca Intervention Team (HIT) with police and tax officials:

In case "99/2724, LJN-nummer: AA9215" the court of Amsterdam accepted the tax administrations position that a 100% bruto margin was normal since the coffeeshop owner couldn't convince the court of a different margin. The 100% margin was estimated based on several studies.

In case "99/1802, LJN-nummer: AA9213" the Amsterdam court accepted a coffeeshops position that the margin was 65% in '94 and 61% in '95. Since this coffeeshop provided an administration that was flawed by definition yet credible, the burden of proof was with the tax administration, they couldn't convince the court a 100% margin was more accurate than the margin the coffeeshop provided.

In case "01/3512, LJN-nummer: AF8359" the Amsterdam court accepted the tax administrations estimate of an 80% margin. In this case the coffeeshopowner said the margin was an average 34,2%, but couldn't backup this claim, since he said he threw away the original day by day administration...You're welcome let me know how your paper went.

(edit) PS: If it fits in your paper, you could mention how 30 years of availability of mj through coffeeshops in the Netherlands has not led to an increase of consumption, and how the seperation of the markets for marijuana and illicit harddrugs has led to a significantly lower consumption of harddrugs in the Netherlands compared to the USA. IMO the main argument for legalizing marijuana for recreational use source

__________________
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Said one to the other, now listen you two
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or her baby to ruin their lives.
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solutions

Okay, when I stated: "There is no value added tax on MJ" I managed to oversimplify:

There is no VAT on the sale of mj for recreational use.

But medical marijuana is taxed with 6% VAT. Currently the Office for Medical Cannabis (OMC) buys marijuana from 2 licensed growers and sells MJ to patients with doctors prescriptions through pharmacies.

The OMC is the organisation of the Dutch Governement which is responsible for the production of cannabis for medical and scientifical purposes. The OMC has the monopoly of the (legal) trade in cannabis. Due to the UN's Single Convention on narcotic drugs the Netherlands are obliged to organize it this way. Since the sale of (medical) mj is not illegal, it can be taxed with VAT. (click here for the OMC's homepage).

And for more accuracy: VAT on the marijuana plant is 19%, VAT on marijuana seeds is 6%.

I think I've got it now.......