From Accidental Sales Tax Accountant to Cannabis CPA and Casino Game Inventor: Daryl Jendras’s Unlikely Journey

Anthony Codispoti (00:01)
Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast, where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired by how they’ve overcome adversity. As you listen today, let one idea shape what you do next. My name is Anthony Cotis-Bode and today’s guest is Daryl Gendris, founder and managing member of Salt Cap.

a boutique firm that helps companies handle state and local tax challenges across the US. Launched in 2021, their clients range from family-owned shops to Fortune 500 giants. They remove multi-state tax headaches so business owners can stay focused on growth. He’s also the managing director of Green Rush Accounting and Tax. They are the complete cannabis accounting firm in a box. From Gap-compliant

bookkeeping, all the way to fractional CFO services and everything in between. They provide world-class accounting, tax and &A tax planning services to the industry. But before we get into all that good stuff, today’s episode is brought to you by my company, Adback Benefits Agency. Listen, if you run a business, you are likely stuck in the cycle of rising insurance premiums. You’re paying more, but your team is getting less and many people can’t afford coverage at all.

We do things differently. We offer a solution that provides your employees with unlimited access to doctors, therapists, and prescriptions that’s always free for them to use. But here’s where you really need to pay attention. Unlike every other employee benefit out there, our program puts more money into your company’s bank account. As an example, we recently helped a client increase net profits by $900 per employee per year.

Gains like that can change how a business is valued. Results vary, but the consultation is free. You can be the advisor that becomes a hero by introducing this to your clients. See if they qualify today at addbackbenefits.com. All right, back to our guest today, the managing director of Salt Cap, Daryl Gendris. Thanks for making the time to share your story today.

Daryl Jendras, CPA (02:09)
Anthony, thank you for letting me participate. I’m honored to be on your podcast.

Anthony Codispoti (02:14)
So Darrell, before we talk about the two businesses that, by the way, you started at the same time, let’s lay the foundation for your expertise. What was the path that led to you becoming an expert in state and local taxes?

Daryl Jendras, CPA (02:29)
wow. That’s a great question. ⁓ So what did happen was I had graduated from Purdue University. I was going to go there for engineering and then switched over to accounting after like, you know, one week of like, yeah, this isn’t this isn’t for me. So we got into accounting, graduated, and I came out in 92. And there was the recession going on. you know, got a got a job as an internal auditor at a bank.

did one full year, one of my friends reached out and said, hey, my company has an opening for an entry level sales tax accountant. And I go, I have no idea what sales tax is. He goes, you’d be perfect for the job because it’s not no one, school offers that. So it was basically learn on the fly. So, you know,

there was lots of struggle in there. It probably took me six months to just understand the basics. And this was in a construction industry and construction for sales tax is really complex. And then, ⁓ so that’s how I got in. And then when I…

saw an opportunity to expand my horizons. I took another job at a startup boutique where you would go to the field. They had some decent sized companies and all that. So I started there and travel was involved and all that. And one day my partner goes, or the manager of the office said, hey, I want you to go.

you know, to this project and like, you know, I’m just a few months in, I really am not comfortable like doing it on my own. He pulls me in the office, you know, sort of says, you know, we’re trying to help you, trying to help you grow. And I think ever since then, then I would never say, you know, he basically taught me never say no. So like when I was there for four or five years, I got to see the entire country go to

pretty much almost every industry and that, and then that’s where I just, you know, it was fun going to different manufacturing facilities. And by the time I would see like a few of them, like, you know, 10, 15 years later, I can go to other locations, you know, it’s a food manufacturing facility. I could walk in before the plane tour started and go.

Okay, you guys make this, this, this, this, and this through your, you know, stainless steel, that’s in Atlanta. the guys like, have worked here before. I’m like, no, no, no. But I’ve seen your competitors because basically we would represent ⁓ all the companies through sales tax audits. So that’s how I grew into, you know, getting to that level. And as I kept progressing, actually back in 2012, when I was at a company and my boss, said, you know, why are we working here?

You you, basically are doing the selling. I’m doing all the work. Let’s go out on our own. So that’s how we started going out on our own from, from 2012 to then 2021, where I just, it was coming off the COVID, you know, it was mid COVID and it was just like, it’s, it’s time to go. I, this isn’t working for me. And that’s how I got out on my own. So basically I’ve been doing sales juice tax for 30 years. I know.

Anthony Codispoti (05:43)
⁓

Daryl Jendras, CPA (06:06)
every state. I’ve been to every industry and then just doing work up in Canada and I can co-analyze and start realizing that VAT tax is a whole lot easier and less complicated than sales tax. it’s just like

Anthony Codispoti (06:22)
So what is it that makes sales,

state and local tax here in the state so complicated? Just give us sort of a high level for people outside the industry.

Daryl Jendras, CPA (06:31)
I can explain it perfectly because the best one is I had a client, ⁓ I still have a they’re headquartered in the Netherlands and they have this location here just outside Chicago where I’m located and they’re just so used to VAT tax being one simple rule in this and I said no, there’s 50 states but

Five of them don’t have sales tanks, but the District of Columbia does. So technically there’s 46 and each state is, there’s no consistency. There’s the way the laws were written in the thirties, forties and fifties aren’t up to date. don’t have every possible scenario addressed in law. So it’s basically, you know, subject to interpretation and you know, like I would always tell all my clients it’s

If it was black and white, you wouldn’t need me. It’s the shade of gray. Now, how light or dark is your shade of gray? So that’s where he, he’s still having a hard time struggling because he’s just asking questions of like, but why isn’t it all the same? Like it is if it was a regular country. And I’m like, it’s, it’s, it’s not each. And then if you really want to, you get to the granular level, then there’s local each state. Some of these states have.

home rules where like city of Chicago has rules that sort of contradict what’s going on in the state of Illinois, just for example. So there’s just, it’s, it’s never boring.

Anthony Codispoti (08:04)
So give us an example

of where some of the gray area exists. Maybe just like a specific example of, ah, it could mean this, it could mean that.

Daryl Jendras, CPA (08:15)
There’s one where you could just say, you know, it’s manufacturing. And the perfect example is, and we are struggling while we’re doing the software implementation for the beginning of the year, Texas allows an exemption for restaurant equipment that if you use it and process food, so let’s just say it’s a chicken rotisserie, say you walk into your Costco.

Texas says that’s manufacturing the equipment. If you walk into a Costco in Arizona and I had a client who, you know, is in a condo but had like a convenience store, was trying to claim that same exemption. And I said, no, you can’t because there’s a court case in Arizona that says that’s taxable. Like if it was like a little Caesar’s mixing the dough.

That’s not manufacturing equipment. So there’s just so many nuances from state to state and some, some businesses interpreted it wrong and, and all that. And it’s just, you know, you try to educate them. try to help mitigate just any, how can I put it? Any way I can just bring down the stress because sometimes I hear a lot of opinions coming from

either clients or the clients customers. And I’m like, but here’s the law and I’ll lay it out.

Anthony Codispoti (09:44)
So, Der, how do you possibly stay on top of all the laws? I mean, you’re not just talking about 46 different states. You’re talking about these little subsections in their laws about, you know, manufacturing equipment is taxed differently than something else. And then you’re talking about within states, ⁓ lot of municipalities will add on their own tax rates. And like you’re saying, this, sometimes there’s contradicting information.

Daryl Jendras, CPA (10:01)
you

Right, yes.

Anthony Codispoti (10:13)
How do you keep on top of this? Is there like a giant database that you’re constantly querying?

Daryl Jendras, CPA (10:13)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

There,

there, there is, use third party software to pull in ⁓ court cases and just help guide me, guide me through some things. Cause it’s like, you know, there was, ⁓ what was it? Just recently, Louisiana changed the taxability for software as a service and, or Illinois removed the economic nexus threshold from, you know, where it was, you know,

100,000 or 200 transactions, they remove the 200. So it’s just…

Yeah, think I would say I would know probably 95 % of the stuff because most of the stuff usually doesn’t change. But then when you have a client and they start asking a question, you look to see if anything changed, well then it’s like, let’s research it and get the answer. Because most of the time when they ask, I’m sorry, but most of the time when they ask a question, I usually defer and go, I know the answer. Let’s just see if the law changed.

Anthony Codispoti (11:12)
So what is…

double-check. ⁓

Daryl Jendras, CPA (11:21)
So I know

if I answered the question you were gonna say.

Anthony Codispoti (11:24)
Yeah, I’m just help me understand what it is that you’re typically doing. Like, are you advising most of your clients as they’re moving into a new category of product? Are you helping them once they’ve made a mistake and now the state is auditing them? Is it kind of all of the above?

Daryl Jendras, CPA (11:46)
It’s all the above and then some, cause there’s some where maybe they’re looking to sell their company or maybe they’re looking to acquire a company. it’s sort of like doing the due diligence. know, are there any skeletons in the background? If we acquire this company, are they doing their sales tax correctly? You know, and that, so I mean, I’ve, I can, I can do the audits and then I can also.

where every, you know, be proactive and do like an internal audit to clean everything up. So it’s, it’s, it’s that. And then on top of consulting. it’s like, you know, last month I, I was able to speak at, ⁓ a PPA conference in Las Vegas. It was for the promotional industry. There were, there are so many small promotional industry companies and I never had a presentation.

Whereas I started talking, one person asked a question, I stopped to answer it. And then it was like, know, feeding time at the pond. Everyone was just raising their hands and that, and just, you know, because I think a lot of people are intimidated. They’re afraid to make a mistake. No, you’re going to make mistakes, but how damaging are those mistakes going to be to your bottom line?

Anthony Codispoti (13:13)
So.

Daryl Jendras, CPA (13:13)
It’s

yeah, I pretty much do everything for sales tax.

Anthony Codispoti (13:16)
Yeah,

when you were getting started, you’d have a lot of experience, you’d work with a lot of clients. How did you get your first clients for SaltKat?

Daryl Jendras, CPA (13:19)
Thank

actually referrals from CPA firms. Because most CPA firms, don’t have a state and local tax practice. it’s just, you know, when it comes to sales use tax, I would, I would look at it and I always use this analogy. Picture me as being in your bullpen, I’m your left-handed reliever. Now you have bases loaded, nobody out. It’s the bottom of the net. Can you please, you know, and we’re wounded by one. Can you please come in?

get us out of this jam and that. And usually most of the time it’s like, yeah, you walk in and it’s like, okay, we need to fix this, this and this, or I see where the auditor is going. Let’s see how we can clean it up. How can we minimize the damage or how can we implement new things that you may not have thought of or you weren’t aware that you could do?

Anthony Codispoti (14:19)
Are there things that you’ve found that you can say or produce for the auditor that, I don’t know, smooths some ruffled feathers, makes this go a little bit smoother?

Daryl Jendras, CPA (14:32)
Yeah, yeah, there’s been some times where I’ve come in and either the client or someone else that was representing them, you know, would just butt heads a lot. So I would just come in with a just calming thing and just go, okay, I see where you’re coming from. Here’s my interpretation of the law, because a lot of this stuff too is subject to interpretation. mean, you cannot, you know, when you’re writing the last, you know,

20, 30 years ago, Noah was thinking of software as a service, that was just evolving and all that. that, people are trying, lawmakers are trying to write laws to catch up or state current. So yeah, it’s just.

Anthony Codispoti (15:21)
specific stories

can help the audience kind of wrap their heads around things. Darrell, I’m wondering if you can share a particularly challenging multi-state tax issue that you were able to help solve.

Daryl Jendras, CPA (15:34)
Yeah, was one of the things is I had a client, they were an electric company. And I mean, granted, it’s little too specific, but let me just say, okay, they were a company, they were audited. They couldn’t find an exemption certificate. And because this was one of their larger companies, it was worth like $3 million in an audit assessment. And…

you know, everyone’s panicking and I go, well, where is it? It’s like, I, we don’t know because back then it was all paper copies. know, no one saved it to a PDF. And then I called the number and they’re out of business. So then I’m like researching and I’m like, okay, it’s a, it’s a different company. Now it’s the same owner. He’s at a different company. So I call him.

And he’s like, yeah, I just absolutely hated that company, blah, blah, blah. And I’m like, well, I’m sort of outside your door. Could you just come in and sign this exemption certificate? He’s like, yeah, signs it. I just leave. So what I did was I flew from Chicago to Texas. Hoping this guy would sign it so I could save my client three billion dollars just by holding.

holding a sheet of paper.

Anthony Codispoti (17:00)
Help me understand

though, Darrell, what position was this person in to be able to sign? Because I’m thinking like of the company prior.

Daryl Jendras, CPA (17:07)
He was his CFO.

of the company that went out of business.

Anthony Codispoti (17:17)
Okay, I’m not connecting the dots here. Why did you need a sales tax exemption certificate for a company that went out of business?

Daryl Jendras, CPA (17:19)
Okay.

because we didn’t have it on hand because during the audit period, the company was still active. Because some of these sales tax audits, it goes back like four or five years. mean, granted, when it starts, there’s like an audit period of three to four years. This audit was also taking three more years to complete. So we’re looking six years. So this was like, what was it? Probably 19…

Anthony Codispoti (17:29)
Got it. Okay.

got it.

Daryl Jendras, CPA (17:55)
1999 and we’re working on it still in like 2004, 2005 and the company goes out of business, you know, in like 2002. You know, when you look in there, because if you don’t have it, have that exemption certificate, you can’t claim you should have charged them tax and everything. Well, they’re out of business. So what are you going to do? And, let’s be creative. Let’s not tell, let’s not tell anyone what I’m doing. And then when I make the call.

Anthony Codispoti (17:59)
Okay.

Got it.

Daryl Jendras, CPA (18:22)
to say, hey, I’m outside your door. So, you know.

Anthony Codispoti (18:26)
So you didn’t

give this previous CFO a heads up, you just hopped on a plane, you’re outside his door, you call from your cell phone, and you roll the dice and it worked and you saved your client $3 million. That’s a I love that. That’s a heck of a ⁓ flight there.

Daryl Jendras, CPA (18:32)
Yep. Yep.

And it worked. Yeah. Yeah. And yeah,

that was, mean, I’m looking at that as well. It’s risk reward. What are we going to do? You know, spend a thousand for, you know, flight travel and, and that because they, had, mean, I was just like reading notes. It was just like a very toxic relationship. And I’m just like, well, here’s one way to fix it. Let’s just roll the dice. And the worst thing he can tell me is no.

It’s kind of hard to say no when you’re at the front door.

Anthony Codispoti (19:06)
⁓ Yeah, it’s much harder

that way. I love that. ⁓ So years ago, I had multiple e commerce brands. And so I became very familiar with the Wayfair ruling. Can you walk the audience through what that is?

Daryl Jendras, CPA (19:21)
Mm-hmm.

Sure. So the way fare ruling, I call it as its economic nexus. So when it comes for sales tax, before wayfare, you had to have physical presence in the state to have nexus. And if you had nexus, or if you do have nexus and you’re making sales, you have to ⁓ charge sales tax or unless there’s a valid

exemption certificate to receive.

Anthony Codispoti (19:55)
So I’m in Ohio, I’m selling my

e-commerce goods into the state of Illinois. Prior to that, I wasn’t required to collect, pay, report sales tax, right? For this, right?

Daryl Jendras, CPA (20:05)
correct.

Yeah. And for Illinois transactions.

Right. So basically back then, you know, we’ll use your example, your Ohio, your Ohio based. And if that was the only place where your office was located, you know, say you just had, you know, a warehouse in Ohio and you were just selling your goods. All you had to do is collect Ohio. So then, and it was, it was pretty funny to sort of

geek out when you got to see the Supreme Court take up Wayfair as a case. And I’m like, oh my God, sales tax now is actually in the Supreme Court. This is pretty cool. know, yeah, I’m on the big stage. So it was, was interesting then to see how willing it was. The willing was states could set their economic nexus threshold. So I would say probably

Anthony Codispoti (20:47)
You’re on the big stage. Yeah.

Daryl Jendras, CPA (21:05)
over half the states it’s a hundred thousand dollars but there’s a handful of states where it’s a hundred thousand dollars or 200 transactions and this is where no matter what industry whether it’s manufacturing online sales hemp cvd you know if you’re making in those states where there’s

You know, we can, I’ve got my list right here of one of the ones I’m working on with the client. Let’s just use, um, you know, like Kentucky as an example, it’s, it’s 200 transactions, if they’re, um, you know, sales were only $20 each and 200 transactions, you know, that’s, that’s not, you’re nowhere near a hundred thousand, but because you exceeded 200 transactions, that’s where you had to start charging sales tax, get registered and go from there.

Anthony Codispoti (22:04)
So Wayfair opened the door to all of these states being able to claim something new, this economic nexus that didn’t exist before. And now for small businesses, a lot of them are e-comm, there’s this burden of how do we figure this out, like at scale? Because we’re shipping to ostensibly all 50 states and different jurisdictions within each state. since Wayfair, how are clients managing this?

Daryl Jendras, CPA (22:13)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Right.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

⁓ There’s third-party software out there that they can use and I can recommend some, can implement whatever. There’s some really, I wouldn’t say the Cadillac. Well, there’s the higher-end ones, but those are the ones where they’re selling products, but depending upon if you’re selling baby products and baby food and this and that, they’re

software product is really good, but most of the ones, just Shopify, know, people selling Shopify, you know, turn, turn on the sales tags. Well, don’t turn to that yet. You know, they, there’s software that just monitors your, your training. Oh, there we go. Okay.

Anthony Codispoti (23:31)
⁓ So let’s give some airtime to Green Rush, business you started at roughly the same time. ⁓ What was the idea here? What was the problem you were trying to solve?

Daryl Jendras, CPA (23:44)
Well, in 2020, Illinois came on board with making cannabis legal in the state. So I was looking at that as another opportunity to get into the cannabis space and learn it. there aren’t that many CPAs in the industry. So I saw Mitch and said, hey, you know.

I have nothing to lose. Let’s jump in on it and go from there.

Anthony Codispoti (24:20)
Okay. And so are you now focusing exclusively on ⁓ cannabis businesses in the state of Illinois?

Daryl Jendras, CPA (24:29)
no, I’m all over the place. I’ve got, I’ve got, ⁓ license holders in Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, helping, ⁓ California companies with like, ⁓ some of their renewals of their licenses by doing independent audit reports and all that. so I look at it as I’m extremely strong in sales tax. Well, let’s expand the scope and just become a

full-blown accountant on that and then also to like doing some business valuations for ⁓ Cannabis CBD companies have you know because with cannabis You can’t ship You know everything has to be interest date, but when it comes to hemp CBD because it’s below the the federally level, you know the federal level you can ship interstate just like

Anthony Codispoti (25:24)
of the THC quantity.

Daryl Jendras, CPA (25:26)
Yeah, the THC, you can ship, you know, and do interstate commerce with that.

Anthony Codispoti (25:32)
So let’s help our audience understand some of the specific complexities around the cannabis industry. Maybe a good place to start is by explaining 280E and 471C.

Daryl Jendras, CPA (25:45)
Mm-hmm. So with 280E, look at it as, you know, a regular, let’s look at it as a regular manufacturer. They get to claim all these, you know, exemptions, like rent, marketing, you know, payroll for like non-production people or, professional fees or insurance utilities and that. That’s not available to the cannabis space.

So like anyone that’s plant touching, they’re subject to 280. So they’re at a huge disadvantage. Like the profits, the profits that they would have as a normal business isn’t there in the cannabis space right now. So they can’t deduct rent. They can’t deduct marketing expenses. They can’t deduct, you know, admin salaries or…

or like, you know, the insurance and the utilities. So their tax bill is much higher. So instead of having, you know, your profit being this and then paying tax on that, it’s, it’s, here’s the less, you know, the less amount that you can deduct for,

Anthony Codispoti (27:07)
Can they have any deductions at all?

Daryl Jendras, CPA (27:09)
for that.

There are some, there are.

Anthony Codispoti (27:13)
What are they?

Daryl Jendras, CPA (27:14)
⁓ If if let’s see

Anthony Codispoti (27:24)
While you think on that, I’m just going to sort of bottle this up for the audience in case this isn’t landing. You know, let’s say you’ve got a company, a cannabis company that’s making a million dollars. Let’s say you’ve got a calculator company that’s making a million dollars. Well, that calculator company, maybe at the end of the year, they’ve got 15 % net profit. I’m just making up numbers here. So they’re going to owe income tax on that $150,000, not on the million dollars in sales. But for a cannabis company,

Daryl Jendras, CPA (27:27)
Right. Right.

Mm-hmm.

Anthony Codispoti (27:55)
Roughly speaking, it sounds like there are some exceptions, but they’re going to owe income tax on that million dollars in sales, even though that was nowhere near what their actual profit number was.

Daryl Jendras, CPA (28:05)
Right, right, right. ⁓ And pretty much like one…

For 280E, I think the easiest way to say it is just if you’re touching inventory production. I mean, it’s really, really limited on that. like ⁓ dispensaries that are popping up throughout the country where it’s legal. It’s, you know.

Anthony Codispoti (28:36)
So a dispensary ⁓ can write off their business expenses or cannot?

Daryl Jendras, CPA (28:42)
Can not, it would be like only anyone in the back room. would be actually, you know, like touching the inventory, you know, there, but like the front of the room, you know, like all the cash registers, all the budtenders salaries and that you wouldn’t be able to deduct where, you know, just picture it as if you were going to a grocery store, you know, okay, here’s, here’s your utilities. can deduct, you know, here’s, you know, you’re not going to be paying.

you’re not gonna be paying federal income tax on your utilities and your wages to your employees and that. ⁓

Anthony Codispoti (29:22)
And the reason this exists is because cannabis is still illegal at the federal level. It’s just individual states have kind of come up with their own laws on, ⁓ recreational or medicinal is okay. And so because it’s still illegal at the federal level, you’re not allowed to make write-offs, but apparently you’re still allowed to pay taxes on something that the federal government considers illegal. Yeah.

Daryl Jendras, CPA (29:27)
Yes.

Mm-hmm.

Right. Oh yeah.

Yeah. And right now the president signed like an executive order to reschedule this. So it hasn’t, you know, as of this recording, it hasn’t gone through and everyone’s trying to look to see how that would be. We’re part of the impression that it would make it the same as a normal legal manufacturing.

facility or a normal like convenience store or grocery store and that’s so and then also too and I don’t know if you’re familiar with this either is um they’re also trying to work on the safe banking act so like you have to pay cash for this stuff and you know you can’t use Chase Bank of America Wells Fargo so

Those large banking companies do not accept anything that’s cannabis related. So you have to use like credit unions or small startup banking companies that can handle those transactions. there’s the big deficit or detriment to the industry.

Anthony Codispoti (31:09)
Well, and you know, from the industry that I play in the insurance space. Now our product isn’t like this, but you know, lot of other insurance companies, they won’t work with the cannabis space. And so, you know, I hear a lot of them have trouble getting, you know, any kind of. Coverage is so so right. We’re recording this in February of 2026. I think it was just earlier this year that the administration announced that they were going to reschedule cannabis from schedule one to schedule three.

Daryl Jendras, CPA (31:20)
Mm-hmm.

Correct.

Anthony Codispoti (31:38)
And the hope is that that also affects this 280e designation, but nobody’s really sure how that’s going to unfold or what the timeline is for that. How about 471C? Did you have something else you wanted to say on that, Darrell?

Daryl Jendras, CPA (31:52)
Oh, no, no, no, because I was going to transition to 471 C and that one that’s more, it’s more geared towards the grow of the plant. So, and the cannabis space, it’s called verticals. Like if someone owns a license for cultivation processing, would, so cultivation would be growing the plant. Processing would be taking

the plant and converting it to, you know, finished goods, whether it’s ⁓ gummies, CBD, you know, creams or anything. That’s that. then, and then everything would be sold at a dispensary if it’s, you know, truly cannabis. But then there’s also somewhere like if, like you said earlier, below the THC 0.3 threshold, you can sell it in your state commerce. So

So really on the cultivation side, 471 is more geared towards anything where it’s just plant-based touching. like examples would be the raw materials or the direct production. How can I put it? Like the nutrients for the plant and that.

that stuff there sort of it’s you’re growing a product. So really pretty much anything in cost of goods for inventory is deductible. So I mean, would say inventory costs on there and just having real good details to show us like, okay, we bought the pot, we bought the pot for the plant to grow in.

the soil, then we add the nutrients, here’s the seed, here’s the water. So basically because you’re processing it or making a plant grow, that’s that.

Anthony Codispoti (34:00)
So the cost of goods

in the cannabis industry are deductions. Do qualify.

Daryl Jendras, CPA (34:06)
Right,

right, but but like when you’re going to dispensary all that stuff say all that stuff has already been established You know and that you’re not growing anything at the dispensary. You’re just selling the finished product So that’s why like in dispensary has you know very little deductions available

Anthony Codispoti (34:18)
Got it.

So how are these cannabis businesses staying alive? How are they making money?

Daryl Jendras, CPA (34:32)
It’s a lot of struggle right now and it’s been a struggle for a while. Like California is a very mature market. They’re doing well, but the prices have come down and it’s like, know, saturation. So it’s just like anything like one of my clients is in Delaware. It’s a new one. We’re expecting, you know, price for Pond to be going up, but then eventually, you know, as more cultivators come on and more product is out there.

they’ll just drive the cause down. it’s sort of like the true economics of supply and demand. If it’s one of the newer states, like New York just came on within the last couple of years, everything, I’d say pretty much everything east of the Mississippi has come on board within the last five to eight years.

Anthony Codispoti (35:23)
So this

280E I want to go back to, is there any gray area in here? I’ve heard some folks making a claim that, we don’t really think 280E applies to the cannabis space. We’re going to go ahead and make deductions anyways.

Daryl Jendras, CPA (35:40)
Yeah, those are the ones I backpedal from. I would rather… It’s black and white until there’s some kind of court case that explicitly lays it out. Like if it’s someone that’s thinking, yeah, here’s a clear area, here’s where we can make it a little bit murky. I don’t know. The way I read it…

Anthony Codispoti (35:45)
Okay.

Daryl Jendras, CPA (36:08)
I’m not like if it was a sales tax thing. Yeah, I know where I can do this. This one here is federal and it’s such a high dollar amount. I could say, yeah, we can go for it. But here’s what’s at stake if you lose. So like if you take a, if you take the deduction and your tax base goes from, let’s use your example of like a million and you say, well, you know, we could probably get it down to 500,000. Okay.

But then I always say, what’s your delta? That’s the 500,000. So if you’re going to lose, you’re going to have tax on that plus interest and penalty. So what’s your risk reward? I that’s where I’m just like, OK, if you’re adamant to sort of push the envelope, you better set aside a reserve in case you lose.

Anthony Codispoti (37:06)
Tell us about your casino table game as we completely shift gears.

Daryl Jendras, CPA (37:11)
Now that one, yeah,

yeah, that one, that one’s kind of wild and here I’ll give you a little bit of background. Back in September, I went to the AICPA headquarters to work on getting a thoroughly understanding business valuation for cannabis, but just business valuation in general, using that for the cannabis space. And,

It was the first day, you everyone goes in there and introduces yourself. And, ⁓ I said, yeah, I’m not like, you know, some of these people that only work with feds or work with doctors for business valuation. go, I’m a local, you know, I have a state local practice. I have a cannabis practice. And then I go, and on top of that, I developed a casino table game with one of my.

with one of my friends. The sight eyes I got from most of the people, I felt like the black sheep. Yeah, and then like one of the instructors is like, ⁓ you’re the Tulsa King. And I’m like, yeah, I never really gave that a thought. It’s like, you know, it’s like, yeah, I enjoy gambling and all this other stuff. And ⁓ when it happened was…

Anthony Codispoti (38:15)
is this guy.

Daryl Jendras, CPA (38:35)
This was, this goes back a long way to, this was like in 2005 where we flew out to Vegas because you could only gamble in Vegas or Atlantic city to bet on sports back then. You know, nowadays, mean, shoot, you can just get on your phone and, you know, make a bet from anywhere, you know, in the States where it’s legal. And, um, we’ve found there to go bet on the Bears game and we all lost our money before we could bet on the Bears game. So we were sitting at the airport going, Hey, if we can’t.

we can’t own a casino, how can we make money? And that’s what started the brainchild of creating Matchem, Matchem, Hi-Lo and that. Matchem, Hi-Lo? Matchem, Hi-Lo? It’s basically the player gets three cards. The point value is just like blankjack, except face cards are zero. So if it’s ace…

Anthony Codispoti (39:15)
What’s it called? it again.

Okay. And what is the game?

Daryl Jendras, CPA (39:34)
As can be 1 or 11, 2 through 10s, the value of 2 through 10, face cards are 0. You add up your three cards, the dealer gets five and sets them up in order of creating, of the five cards he uses, two and a community card for the low value, then the community card and the other two for the high value. And you just have to determine is your point total higher or lower?

than the dealers and ties win on this. yeah, there isn’t any game out there where ties win. Usually ties always push. So then he has side bets. Exactly. And then he has a side bet of three card poker. But because we’re playing out of a blackjack deck, you know, where can be six or eight, or blackjack shoe, where it can be six or eight decks.

Anthony Codispoti (40:15)
Yeah, it’s part of the house advantage.

Daryl Jendras, CPA (40:32)
You can have like suited three of a kind and that pays like a hundred one and then, ⁓ and then there’s the matchup, but that’s what it’s how we came up with matchup was, ⁓ if you match the dealer’s rank. So say I would have, ⁓ two, five, six, and on the dealer’s five cards, there were three, two, five, and a six. Then you would match all five and that would be.

You know, a hundred to one payout. it’s, it’s a unique cable game. It’s not a derivative of blank deck. It’s not a derivative of poker. One of being like a, um, uh, a mix of a whole bunch of games where it’s like, you know, it has some part of Bachrad has some part of blank jacket has some part of poker. And yeah, it’s been in an Iowa casino for.

Anthony Codispoti (41:13)
Mix.

Daryl Jendras, CPA (41:32)
over 12 years and like three or four other Iowa casinos during that time. And then of course COVID hit and I had, we had some good traction. was getting ready to get it into Minnesota and Missouri. COVID hit shut down the whole casino space. Then when they reopened, they still had those plastic.

panels, some casinos, the dividers, and people wearing face masks. So if it’s a new game and you’re wearing a face mask, no one’s going to be able to explain it. So then that’s how we created an app for that game.

Anthony Codispoti (41:55)
Dividers, yeah.

So what stage is the business in and what’s the revenue month?

Daryl Jendras, CPA (42:14)
for that game, it’s basically leasing it ⁓ monthly to a casino. Just so they can have it on their floor on that. So we get no revenue from whatever profits the casinos make off of that.

Anthony Codispoti (42:30)
just a flat monthly

charge for them having it on the floor. And a casino’s reason for wanting to add this is, hey, it’s a different game. It’s in variety, right? Let’s shake things up for our customers.

Daryl Jendras, CPA (42:40)
Mm-hmm, right.

Yeah, and it’s actually simpler than blackjack because you don’t have you don’t get any different cards You don’t have to think should I hit should I stay it? Basically, here’s your three cards and then you just determine if you’re gonna go higher. Your decision doesn’t impact anyone else So we’ve actually seen and it’s it’s pretty funny when they would

go to some of the casinos and play and I wouldn’t wear my stuff. I would just walk up and go, oh, hey, how do you like this game? And then they would tell me, it’s like, yeah, you know, it’d be three ladies. It’s like, yeah, usually we go out to a movie, then we go to dinner. But it’s like, you know, you can’t talk during a movie. So it’s like, you know, we come here and play this for a couple hours because we just sit, talk and play it. It’s better than sitting at a slot machine.

Anthony Codispoti (43:32)
It’s like sitting around a campfire.

Daryl Jendras, CPA (43:34)
Exactly.

Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (43:37)
⁓

Okay, and there’s an app as well. So people can download this from an app store and they buy it or they play it for free with ads or how’s it work?

Daryl Jendras, CPA (43:40)
Yes. Yep. It’s

play it for free. You can’t win any money on what we’re working on right now is trying to get relationships with ⁓ other casinos to where it’s like, okay, if you play enough, then you can get credit for like a free dinner at a… ⁓

at a casino and that. that’s, that’s where we’re working on right now. Right now is the app more to help educate the people because it’s a completely new game. It’s not blank, Jack. It’s not poker. And I think once everyone starts realizing it’s not, it’s like, this is different. This is pretty fun because the, how can I say it? There was a company that did a podcast on it and I didn’t even realize it for like two years later.

when they were explaining the game, they didn’t have cards, they were doing a really good job. And they said, you know, this game is simple, but there’s some thought to it. And then there’s the suspense at the end because you don’t know what you have until the dealer flips over the five cards. So like if you had three face cards, that’s zero.

Anthony Codispoti (44:54)
Yeah.

Daryl Jendras, CPA (45:02)
Ties win, plus you can double down. So in that many places, it’s like, well, I already got three face cards. I already know I won and I’m doubling down. You know, that’s one of the uniquenesses to the game. We’re going, and this is February of 26, we’re going at the end of the month to present the, we’re exhibiting the game at a Double Game Conference at Hard Rock in Tulsa.

Anthony Codispoti (45:14)
So Darrell, what’s the plan to grow this business?

Daryl Jendras, CPA (45:31)
So there’s going to be a lot of casino executives out there. Basically you vote on which games you would like and then the game that wins would then get placed at the Stratosphere in Las Vegas. So fingers crossed our game’s the best one there. We win and that will help take it, take it, take off. Or if not, at least you’re able to show it to like maybe 20, 30 casino executives.

And it’s easy because they’re coming to us instead of me trying to go out and try to market it to them.

Anthony Codispoti (46:08)
Everybody’s

in the same place together at the same time. Captive audience. Let’s shift gears, Darrell. I’d be curious to hear about a big challenge that you’ve overcome in your life, how you got through that and what you learned going through that process.

Daryl Jendras, CPA (46:12)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

There was, I think it was probably sometime, maybe like May of 23, I wrapped up a Zoom call with a client and all of sudden I had like this heartburn. I was just like, yeah, that came out of nowhere. And the painting’s still there and I went to bed that night.

And I’m like, I just rolled over. I’m like, wow, this is really bad. I’m just going to, you know, I’m thinking it was gas or something. I’m going to go to, um, uh, you know, immediate care, but you know, it’s 10, 10, 11 o’clock at night. It’s not immediate care. Um, so let’s go to, um, you know, the local hospital, you know, just figure it’s, it’s gas. You know, they start running stuff on me and that, um, probably about

Five in the morning I get transported to a different hospital and they start running x-rays that there was a little tumor like the size of a racer head on my pancreas. So then when they walk in, like one person says it’s cancerous and all of a sudden I’m like, okay, here I am by myself. It’s like, okay, pancreatic cancer, this isn’t good. And then, so I had more tests done and all this other stuff.

when they said I had to have this surgery it’s like a distal pancreas pancreas I probably can’t even pronounce it correctly maybe you can help it’s it’s a distal pancreas ⁓ pancreas pancreas to me or however something like that well what it does is it removes ⁓ the tail of the pancreas and the spleen too so ⁓

Anthony Codispoti (48:06)
pancreatic.

Daryl Jendras, CPA (48:18)
So when I went for a second opinion on it, I went to a hospital in downtown Chicago. The surgeon walks in and goes, yeah, if you were my brother, would have recommended that have it because you’ll be dead by the end of the year. So I looked at it because I always had like this dull pain on my, on the lower side. goes, right, the tail’s dead. So I look at it as, I got an extra life.

let’s use it to the best of my abilities and that’s where, know, hey, I should have probably passed away like two years ago and we’re still going strong. And I’m actually probably in the healthiest, you know, the best health in my life because I have to eat cleaner because I’ve only had half a pancreas. not bad.

Anthony Codispoti (49:03)
So.

So you’ve been having pain on your side for a while, just kind of dismissed it. And then one night you started having, you know, these heart pain. no, no, no.

Daryl Jendras, CPA (49:20)
No, no, no, no.

It was where I thought it was heartburn. But that was, I think, when they said it was pancreatitis. But no one told me it was pancreatitis or anything. No one had told me that the tail from the pancreatitis had basically become dead, know, dead part of the organ. So I just had like this faint pain, not thinking anything of it.

You know, walking around with it for a couple months. And that’s, that’s why I went for a second opinion. He was a really good surgeon.

Anthony Codispoti (49:51)
Wow.

And so is it was it actually

a tumor then? Because like you said, like you hear pancreatic cancer, you’re like that, you know, there’s no coming back from this.

Daryl Jendras, CPA (50:01)
Mm-hmm.

Right. Yeah, it was a tumor. It wasn’t, it wasn’t cancerous. But because my tail was, because I had part of a dead organ, it would have, if it wasn’t removed, it would have happened again in this time of lip and fail. Because it was already, it was already part of a dead organ in there.

Anthony Codispoti (50:20)
Wow. So.

You got the surgery just in time. You’ve made a full recovery. You’re actually healthier now, right? Kind of forced to make different choices in your diet because you’ve got half a pancreas. What else have you noticed that’s different about the way that you approach life?

Daryl Jendras, CPA (50:28)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Right, right.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

It’s just, hey, live it. I mean, I always, I was always happy go lucky. Now I just, I say now I’m happier go lucky, you know, so now I just want to, hey, if people are looking for, you know, help guidance, I’ve been doing a lot of mentoring for social equity people on the cannabis side or just mentoring in general. You’re like, if you want to learn sales tax, I can take you under my wing, just grab an intern, you know.

it’s gonna be complex. Anyone that wants to better themselves, I look at it as, let’s go. Why not?

Anthony Codispoti (51:23)
you want to pass along a lot of this ⁓ wisdom and expertise that you’ve accumulated over the years.

Daryl Jendras, CPA (51:27)
Mm-hmm or

right or just the mindset of you know, hey, this is this is hard, you know I’m struggling in a business. No, let’s go back and think of why did you want to get into that business, you know and And just keep keep going towards it. You know never Try to stop the self doubt. There was a reason why you wanted to be an entrepreneur and that

There’s gonna be some good days and there’s gonna be many bad days, but if you can just fighting through that then Yeah That’s that’s how you succeed just once one step at a time baby steps

Anthony Codispoti (52:06)
There’s a lot of life coaching

in there. You’re not the typical tax guy, are you, Darrell?

Daryl Jendras, CPA (52:11)
No, no, I’m top of yeah, you’re this isn’t this stuffy account that you know, someone’s probably looking at going oh great Your interview in a CPA this would be a snooze fest. No, no, no, no far from it

Anthony Codispoti (52:22)
Ha

You’re cut from a different cloth. What do you consider to be your superpower, Darrell?

Daryl Jendras, CPA (52:27)
Yeah.

Yeah, that’s a good one. I’m really good with numbers. You can just throw things at me, just sit there or every time I go out to eat I’m like, how much money are they making in that? But also too, think what I enjoy is I have two boys, a one’s 23, one’s 12. I was helping them a lot. I never pitched in high school, I never played baseball in college. I’ve learned pitching and now…

is helping kids become better and improving their mechanics to help them throw faster and feel better and their arm isn’t achy and that so I don’t know I think I have a few sort of powers where yeah it’s it’s numbers I enjoy poker I enjoy blind jack I enjoy analytics I enjoy when things start becoming more EV more expected value towards me

So now it’s like, okay, now it’s time to shove and ⁓ instead of just random gambling, ⁓ I see an opportunity where I can really take advantage of the situation. I don’t know. I’m I’m spraying all fields, Anthony, I’m sorry.

Anthony Codispoti (53:43)
So as I think.

I love it. Yeah, we can’t put you into one single box, Darrell. Yeah. And I’m thinking back to your casino table game and you you’re saying you’re really good with numbers. And one thing that strikes me is for casino to take this on, obviously, there’s got to be a house advantage, right? And they want to they want to know what that advantage is, right? They want to know like what that that number looks like. How do you calculate that?

Daryl Jendras, CPA (53:51)
No, no.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Well, what’s funny is when we were doing the game on that, I was doing, I have a stats minor. Shocker, huh? So I did the whole statistical analysis. And then when we went to our patent attorney, yes, I have a patent on the game too. So yeah, we’re all over the place on that. ⁓

I didn’t realize had a really well known, ⁓ three card poker where he had wrote a couple of books and we started dealing him the first version of the game and we’re like 15 seconds and he’s like, stop. We just sat there and looked at it he goes, well, this is where usually people yell at me and tell me, you know, go pound sand. And we’re like, no, thanks. You saved us a whole ton of, ton of money. He’s like, well, here. And he started telling us, you know,

trying to find a house edge where it’s between two and 5%. Trying to make it to where people can win frequently. And it took me like seven iterations. I can’t tell you how many times I would work on it, shelve it on the bookshelf for like two, three months, then pull it down and start working on it again. So then I give him my statistical analysis and he goes, we did this. And I go, I did. He goes,

Well, you did everything ready except you didn’t take out your first three cards that you would be playing with. And I’m like, ⁓ he’s like, okay, yeah, this game, this game will work. and then too, and sorry, then to also let’s go way, way back. ⁓ I used to race harness horses in the Chicagoland area. So one of my friends, his parents, and that’s how I got into gambling in high school.

Anthony Codispoti (55:44)
That’s fine.

Daryl Jendras, CPA (56:03)
His parents used to ⁓ standard breds. So these aren’t the thoroughbreds. They’re the ones with the buggy. The guy basically driving the horse and I’m like, hey, I think I might want to buy one. So I bought a horse. The next week I race it. And before I go to the track, I’m working and telling all my friends about it. And they give me money and it’s Halloween of…

I 95, it’s raining. I’m dressed, I’m dressed really, really casual. I’m watching and the horse goes three wide around the backstretch winds. And there’s not even a horse anywhere in the wind photo. I go down, people are, you know, I have to give them my name. They want to make sure they pronounce it right. The, the people that are coming off the track are just like dude.

That’s incredible. The first race you ever owned, you won. It’s like, you know, it’s gonna be all downhill from here. So I laugh when I look and see in my basement, the patent for the table game. And then right beside it is my first ever win photo of racing a horse. So yeah, I just look for opportunities and try to take advantage of it.

Anthony Codispoti (57:22)
The Renaissance man with the Midas touch. like it. Darrell, I’ve just got one more question for you today. But before I ask it, I want to do three quick things for the audience. First, if you want to get in touch with Darrell, we’ve got his email address here. It’s darrell with one L D A R Y L at salt dash cap.com Darrell at salt dash cap.com. And that’ll be on the show notes for folks if you missed it.

Daryl Jendras, CPA (57:25)
It’s I know sure

Anthony Codispoti (57:48)
Speaking of the show, if you’re enjoying this today, please take a moment to subscribe wherever you’re listening. It sends a signal that helps others discover our show. So thank you for taking a quick moment to do that right now. And as a reminder, you can be the hero advisor that helps clients give their employees access to therapists, doctors, and prescription meds while paradoxically increasing their net profits. Real gains that can change how a business is valued.

Learn more today at addbackbenefits.com. So last question for you, Darrell. A year from now, what is one very specific thing that you hope to be celebrated?

Daryl Jendras, CPA (58:27)
I’m having my casino game in like 20 locations, you know, ⁓ that’s one, but then also to, think, celebrating, helping a lot of these startup cannabis companies grow. it’s, it’s difficult to get the financing as it is right now. And just we’re trying our best to figure out how can we bootstrap to get them operational. Cannabis.

cannabis license holders, it’s a light geared towards social equity. So I try my best to help anyone that’s in that footprint. So if I can celebrate more than one, if I can celebrate two, I’ll take it. And then make sure that one of these, and make sure that this podcast is probably one of your top five. No pressure.

Anthony Codispoti (59:14)
All right, I like it. We get

the trifecta going there. Daryl Gendres from Salt Cap. I want to be the first to thank you for sharing both your time and your story with us today. I really appreciate you being here.

Daryl Jendras, CPA (59:18)
Then we’ll get by that.

Thank you. Thank you for your time and the opportunity.

Anthony Codispoti (59:32)
Folks, that’s a wrap on another episode of the inspired stories podcast. Thanks for learning with us today.