Jim Marty: The Two Crippling Compliance Issues for Cannabis Industry [VIDEO]

Marijuana: Sort of legal, very challenging.

Denver CPA Jim Marty had been practicing for decades as an independent, but that all changed thanks to the legalization of marijuana in Colorado. Today he runs a nationwide network of CPA firms focussing on cannabis industry clients, perhaps the largest collection of cannabis-specialist CPAs in the country.

Posted on September 14, 2015

Jim Marty

About the Author

Jim Marty, Chief Executive Officer of Bridge West LLC, is a pioneer and a leader in the cannabis industry and a nationally recognized and renowned expert on marijuana tax, accounting, and banking issues.

Jim has been featured on Fox Business News, CNBC, and numerous other nation-wide media outlets. In 2012, Jim founded Bridge West LLC, the first accounting firm in the world to focus solely on the cannabis industry.

Since 2009, Jim’s practice has grown to more than 150 cannabis clients, and he has consulted in more than a dozen of medical marijuana IRS audits. He continues to be a spokesman and endorser of the cannabis industry through his highly attended marijuana education business presentations. In addition to providing his clients with exceptional tax preparation assistance and unparalleled client services, Jim is accredited in business valuation, intangible asset valuation, and certified in financial forensics.

He is a qualified expert witness in jurisdictions in Colorado and California, and on over 30 occasions has provided testimony in Washington, Colorado, and California courts. Jim has testified for several cases involving business disputes, mergers and acquisitions, and business valuation issues. Jim began his distinguished career at a national accounting firm in Boston, MA and prior to founding Bridge West, Jim spent more than 30 years as the owner of a public accounting practice that assisted small businesses to reach their financial goals.

After gaining an in-depth understanding of corporate accounting, partnership, and individual taxation, Jim founded his private practice in Longmont, Colorado. At his predecessor firm, Jim oversaw a team of experts who provided clients with full service accounting, business valuations, and expert witness services. In 2009, prior to the passage of HB 10-1284 and SB 10-109, the Colorado Medical Marijuana Code, Jim performed extensive research on the marijuana industry.

Realizing the significance of the emerging marijuana industry, he searched for answers regarding renting property to growers and/or dispensaries, opening a dispensary, supplying marijuana to dispensaries and many other issues facing this new industry. Jim then traveling to San Francisco, California to meet with attorneys and accountants involved in the Champ case and other medical marijuana clients.

As a result of his research, Jim decided to focus on the marijuana industry and opened his practice. In 2015, Jim merged his non-marijuana clients with Brock and Company, CPAs, P.C., a 50 person CPA firm founded in Longmont, Colorado in 1956.

At that same time, Jim dissolved Jim Marty and Associates, LLC and created Bridge West LLC, a new company to focus exclusively on the marijuana industry.

Professional affiliations: American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) Colorado Society of Certified Public Accountants Founding Member of the AICPA Business Valuation Networking Group Founding Member of the Bridge West Network – An association of CPAs and Attorneys serving the Marijuana Industry National Cannabis Industry Association Lobbyist to Congress April 2013 and April 2015 Contact Jim via email at jmarty@bridgewestcpas.com Direct: 303-651-0304 (Ext. 1)

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