Californians Helping to Alleviate Medical Problems, Inc. - Page 21




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          hear and view at trial.  We found his testimony to be coherent              
          and credible, as well as supported by the record.  He testified             
          that petitioner’s members paid their membership fees as                     
          consideration for both caregiving services and medical marijuana,           
          and respondent opted not to challenge the substance of that                 
          testimony.  While a member may have acquired, in return for his             
          or her payment of a membership fee, access to all of petitioner’s           
          goods and services without further charge and without explicit              
          differentiation as to the portion of the fee that was paid for              
          goods versus services, we do not believe that such a fact                   
          establishes that petitioner’s operations were simply one trade or           
          business.  As the record reveals, and as we find as a fact,                 
          petitioner’s management set the total amount of the membership              
          fees as the amount that management consciously and reasonably               
          judged equaled petitioner’s costs of the caregiving services and            
          the costs of the medical marijuana.                                         
               Given petitioner’s separate trades or businesses, we are               
          required to apportion its overall expenses accordingly.                     
          Respondent argues that “petitioner failed to justify any                    
          particular allocation and failed to present evidence as to how              
          * * * [petitioner’s expenses] should be allocated between                   
          marijuana trafficking and other activities.”  We disagree.                  
          Respondent concedes that many of petitioner’s activities are                
          legal and unrelated to petitioner’s provision of medical                    







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Last modified: November 10, 2007