280E Escape Plan: Unlocking Tax Efficiency with an ESOP

Section 280E can create significant cash-flow constraints for cannabis businesses, limiting reinvestment, growth, and exit options. This panel brings together three professionals with significant experience in ESOPs and the cannabis industry to explore how a 100% S corporation ESOP can provide an alternative path to ownership transition. The discussion will address potential tax efficiencies, valuation considerations that may help support transactions at appropriate values, creative financing alternatives, and structures that allow selling owners to retain an economic interest and participate in the company’s future upside. Attendees will gain a practical understanding of how an ESOP can create owner liquidity while positioning the business and its employees for long-term success.