RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — A Thursday night community meeting hosted by Richmond City Councilwoman Ellen Robertson was packed with local business owners waiting for answers from the city about a tax issue that has cost some of them thousands.
Business owners lined up Thursday night for the chance to hear from an official about some of the city’s solutions after the some were told they did not need to collect a 7.5% meals tax from their customers, then later told that they did have to collect the tax and were on the hook for the lost revenue.
Elizabeth Sexton, who owns Smohk BBQ in Scott’s Addition, was just one of the business owners at the meeting who owed thousands to the city.
“I wanted to see what the city had to say about treating businesses like that, not telling us that we owe bills when we’re going on about our business, thinking we’re fine,” she said.
Richmond City Auditor Riad Ali said the city is working on its process of notifying businesses when they owe taxes.
“The goal essentially would be identify if there’s any businesses out there still who have never received a notice from the city that they’re delinquent,” said Ali.
Sexton said if she had been notified by the city earlier, her problem could have been sorted out much earlier with her owing significantly less money.
“I did not know that I had made an error in the account,” said Sexton. “If I’d gotten a bill at that time, it would have been a simple matter of maybe a $50 penalty. Two and a half years later, when I am informed of it, it has ballooned in interest and penalties to $5,500 that I owed.”
Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney tasked Chief Administrative Officer Lincoln Saunders with solving the meals tax problem. He proposed other solutions in addition to changing the city’s system of identifying and notifying business who owe money.
One of those proposals is to make elections payment more accessible, reducing late penalties and extending payment plans. Sexton said that, since miscommunication contributed to her situation, she hopes communication from the city will improve in the future.
“I am optimistic that they are moving forward and trying to correct some of these long-standing, entrenched problems,” she said.
Saunders plans to meet with business owners next Wednesday to further discuss the meals tax issues. The meeting will take place at 5:30 p.m. at the Richmond Times-Dispatch’s office on the 300 block of East Franklin Street.
