(Washington, DC) The Office of Tax and Revenue (OTR) today shut down local restaurant Pleitez Inc. t/a Santa Rosa Seafood, located at 2224 18th Street, NW, and seized its liquor license because of the owners’ failure to pay thousands of dollars in sales taxes collected from their patrons and their failure to file sales tax returns. In addition, the owners failed to remit payments for employee withholding and corporate franchise taxes to the District. These delinquent tax amounts total more than $74,000.
“This business not only cheated the District government, it also cheated its customers,” said Sherryl Hobbs Newman, deputy chief financial officer for tax and revenue. “This blatant disregard for the law will not be tolerated, and violators will be punished to the fullest extent possible.”
OTR made numerous attempts to collect the outstanding taxes from the establishment’s owners, without success. When the owners failed to respond to several collection notices, OTR was forced to seize the business, including its liquor license.
This action is part of a broader OTR investigation into restaurants that are not remitting sales taxes collected from their patrons. As part of this effort, OTR has identified 23 local restaurants that are not in compliance with the District’s tax laws (see list below). These restaurants face the same threat of closure unless they comply with the law.
OTR encourages individuals to report tax fraud by calling the toll-free Tax Fraud Hotline at 1-800-380-3495 or by sending an email to TaxFraudHotline@dc.gov.