There are high times ahead for marijuana business owners in Humboldt County, California.

Modifications to Measure S – an excise tax on marijuana growth that the country approved in 2016 and was applicable from January 2017 until 2021 – were recently struck down by an appeals court in California. The court ruled that the county’s implementation of Measure S “impermissibly broadened the scope” of the cannabis tax that the county’s voters had approved, and undid them.

The reasoning for this decision was that the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors had changed the legal meaning of Measure S so that it no longer resembled what voters had approved. As covered in the North Coast Journal, the correction process began when the Board of Supervisors edited the legislation to collect the excise revenue “biannually” – e.g. twice a year – as opposed to “biennially,” once every two years, as was originally written.

Because this did not change the total amount collected, the court did not object to it. However, it objected to other changes – namely, charging the tax based on the property’s total square footage, rather than the amount of that property being used to grow marijuana.

Per the court’s ruling, anyone who had paid marijuana excise taxes under Measure S from 2017 until the present can request a retroactive refund for their taxes from the county. The documentation process is thorough and extensive; the press release stated that, “In order for an application to be considered […] taxpayers need to provide documentation that they did not cultivate cannabis during the year they were assessed a tax or that they cultivated an area that was different from that of their permit” – in other words, that the area of cultivation was smaller than the area of the property. It also required separate applications for each year that a refund was requested.

The county promised to review each claim thoroughly – possibly comparing the claims with existing satellite imagery, which would indicate the size of cannabis fields and their productivity in past years – as well as comparisons to tax records.

Still, for many marijuana growers in Northern California, the prospect of a tax refund might make it worth the effort. The tax in question required that all marijuana growers in Humboldt County pay between $1 and $3 per square foot of marijuana cultivation area, with lower rates for outdoor areas with natural lighting and higher rates for indoor areas.

California marijuana growers in Humboldt County who wish to begin the process of claiming a refund can do so by visiting the County website.

Trevor Filseth is a news reporter and writer for the National Interest.