Posted on 05/24/2010 7:09:24 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Restaurants Targeted in New Audits; 'I Will Fight That Until My Last Breath'
State sales-tax officials are turning up the heat on restaurateurs, auditing 60% more of the city's eateries in the fiscal year that just ended than the year before and leaving the industry with a case of agita.
The cash-strapped state conducted 1,077 sales-tax audits of New York City restaurants in fiscal year 2010, which ended March 31, compared with 646 the previous year. Those reviews found the restaurants owed the state $71.9 million in sales tax, compared with $40.6 million the year before, a 77% increase. About a quarter of that has been collected so far.
"We certainly have a need right now for multiple billions of dollars, and we're trying to do our best through effective enforcement of the current laws to narrow that gap so that the citizens of New York aren't deprived of important resource or that honest taxpayers aren't hit with an additional tax burden," said William Comiskey, deputy commissioner of tax enforcement for the state Department of Taxation and Finance.
Mr. Comiskey said "restaurants are one of the specific areas" that the department is focusing on in its policing of businesses in so-called cash-based sector.
State officials attribute the main reason for the surge of scrutiny to new programs that allows staff members to review two years worth of sales-tax returns through the mail or telephone conversations to determine if they should conduct a more-detailed field audit.
For the industry, the greater scrutiny has raised questions and concerns.
"Business is very difficult right now. Every penny counts. Every minute you're not spending working on improving your business, you're basically losing money," said Jeremy Merrin, a Manhattan restaurant owner who is currently being audited. "This is really taking our time and focus away."
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
One other thing: I like to pay small businesses in cash with the hopes that they don’t log the sale. They can just pocket the money and keep at least some of what they earn.
I never use cash when dealing with chains like Costco, target, etc.
>>I think you’re hiding something terrible behind that word.<<
Like my wife likes to say, “interesting” is an interesting word.
But I’m not really hiding anything. I pretty much blabber it all over this site. I think riots and some form of civil war are both in our near future.
Let them eat health care!
“During his time, he was considered a hero and true patriot.
Today, the press would call him a crackpot.”
No, today smarmy pundits who have replaced journalists would call Otis a “teabagger”
“I don’t find this funny at all.”
I hear ya’. But then again, I think the lion’s share of food service workers tend to be libtards. (Probably because they’re young and “hip”).
So if they end up with some reflected pain in the wallet, ‘scuse me if I chuckle.
Pretty soon the meters that monitor how many breaths one takes will be issued.””
That will kill the New York Marathon.
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