The Roanoker May/June 2022 - 35

" I use CBD and hemp
products and find they
can be beneficial for a
variety of things like
pain or anxiety. "
-Kim White
A
s 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
TheRoanoker.com
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 multiyear
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. I
MAY/JUNE 2022 35
COURTESY OF KIM WHITE
http://www.TheRoanoker.com
The Roanoker May/June 2022

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