§ 496. Records to be kept; penalties. (a) Records to be kept. Every distributor on whom tax is imposed under this article and every person who sells adult-use cannabis products at retail shall maintain complete and accurate records in such form as the commissioner may require including, but not limited to, such items as the total THC content of the adult-use cannabis products sold to or produced by such person; complete records of every retail sale of adult-use cannabis, and any other record or information required by the commissioner. Such records must be preserved for a period of three years after the filing of the return to which such records relate and must be provided to the commissioner upon request.(b) Penalties. In addition to any other penalty provided in this article or otherwise imposed by law, every distributor on whom tax is imposed under this article and every person who sells adult-use cannabis products at retail who fails to maintain or make available to the commissioner the records required by this section is subject to a penalty not to exceed five hundred dollars for each month or part thereof for which the failure occurs. This penalty may not be imposed more than once for failures for the same monthly period or part thereof. If the commissioner determines that a failure to maintain or make available records in any month was entirely due to reasonable cause and not to willful neglect, the commissioner must remit the penalty for that month.
(c) The failure of any person who sells adult-use cannabis products at retail, except a person who possesses a valid registered organization adult-use cultivator processor distributor retail dispensary license or microbusiness license issued by the office of cannabis management, to comply with subdivision (a) of this section for the adult-use cannabis products in such person's possession shall be presumptive evidence that the tax thereon has not been paid, and that such person shall be liable for the tax thereon unless evidence of such invoice, payment or assumption shall later be produced.
