Payments at SPARC

PAYMENT OPTIONS

The world of cannabis payments is dynamic, and we work hard to always ensure that we balance customer convenience with what’s safe, secure, and compliant. SPARC currently offers customers three payment options:

• PAY ONLINE — Fast, cashless and convenient, a simple, one-time sign up allows you to electronically transfer funds from your bank account to prepay for your purchase. Prepay uses ACH (electronic bank-to-bank payments) technology, which directly debits your bank account. Available for all website orders, just choose ‘Prepay / Pay Online Now’ at checkout. There’s a flat $1.95 fee per transaction.
• UPDATED! DEBIT — Use your debit card to pay. Unlike our earlier Cashless ATM option, no change in bills and coins is needed – your debit card is charged the exact total for your purchase. There is a $3 fee per transaction. This payment form is offered in-store.
• CASH — Cash is accepted at all of our locations, and most locations have an ATM on-site. There’s no fee for paying with cash, and works for both in-store and delivery orders.

Payment options vary by location — See our Locations page for details, or review the checkout details screen before placing your order to see a list of payment options available at that location. Unfortunately, due to federal banking regulations, we do not accept credit card payments at this time.

Taxes on cannabis help fund the regulation of the cannabis market, but they also drive up prices in the legal market and consequentially drive up demand in the illegal market. And based on how the regulations are written, there are several cannabis taxes throughout the supply chain. Trust us, we like them even less than you do; but while we don’t make the rules, we do need to follow them. At SPARC, our goal is to provide you with as much transparency as possible to the taxes that you’re paying on cannabis goods:

• Cultivation Tax — Baked into the cost of every cannabis product is a cultivation tax that’s paid when the cultivator transfers raw cannabis product to distributors. This is not an individual line item on your SPARC receipt, but we do want to make you aware of it because you’re still effectively paying it.
• Excise Tax — A value added tax (VAT) that’s based on the wholesale price of the individual SKU and assumes a certain mark-up percentage set by regulators on a periodic basis. While it’s rare, the wholesale price and/or the mark-up percentage of individual SKUs can vary, causing the Excise Tax for those SKUs to vary as well. It is for this reason we label Excise Tax as ‘Expected Excise Tax’ for customers who order online; the actual Excise Tax can only be calculated when the specific SKU for your order is selected.
• Sales Tax — The same as the sales tax that you would pay for many other goods and services. Medical customers with a valid MMID card are exempt from paying this tax.
• Local Taxes — Local jurisdictions have the power to add additional taxes as they see fit. In Santa Rosa, for example, there is a 3% city tax applied to all cannabis sales (in addition to all of the other taxes).

State taxes are set by the State of California and the Bureau of Cannabis Control (BCC). Click here to read more about their policies and tax rules. We encourage you to reach out to your State and local representatives; click here to find your representatives. A more streamlined cannabis tax system would benefit you, SPARC, and the whole legal cannabis community.

PAYMENTS & FEDERAL CANNABIS POLICY

While the State of California has make big strides towards advancing cannabis policy, the federal government lags behind. The biggest example of this is the lack of access to banking in the cannabis industry.  This impacts SPARC as an operator, but it also impacts you as a customer. In order to advance cannabis policy at the federal level, we support the following bills. Both measures would significantly help advance banking access in the cannabis industry, which would benefit not only you and SPARC, but the whole cannabis community.

SAFE BANKING ACT

The Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act is proposed legislation that effectively providing cannabis operators with the same access to banking services as other industries.

STATES ACT

The Strengthening the Tenth Amendment Through Entrusting States (STATES) Act is proposed legislation that that would, at the federal level, recognize the legalization of cannabis and the state laws that govern cannabis in states where cannabis has been legalized.

To vocalize your support for this legislation and cannabis legislation more broadly, we also encourage you to make your voice heard by contacting your federal representatives. Click here to find your House Representative and click here to find your Senators. We’re all in this fight together — thank you for doing your part to pave the future of cannabis policy!