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STEPPED UP TAX COLLECTIONS NET DOLLARS FOR JEFFERSON CO.

By Ray King/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Tuesday, September 29, 2009 11:11 PM CDT

Increased efforts to collect business taxes in Jefferson County this year have generated more than $31,000 for the county and reduced the number of businesses owing delinquent taxes to its lowest number in years.

Tax collector Stephanie Stanton said since Oct. 19, 2008, when she started pursuing delinquencies, 61 businesses still owe back taxes and five of them are in bankruptcy. Collection efforts included phone calls and registered letters to the listed owners of the businesses.

“Out of the remaining 56, we think 13 of them are still in business and some of the ones that are closed are making payments on their taxes,” Stanton said.

She expected more of those to pay up before the tax books close Oct. 10.

In previous years, the number of businesses that were delinquent averaged between 70 and 80, Stanton said.

“Every year after the tax books close, we start trying to collect delinquent business taxes before some of those businesses end up closing,” Stanton said.

A list from the tax collectors office showed that the 56 businesses who are currently delinquent owe a total of $52,929.30, with nearly $17,000 of that total owed by M R S Ventures, a Texas company that bought radio stations KOTN, KCLA, KPBQ and KZYP from the late Winston H. “Buddy” Deane and his family. Stanton said efforts to locate the owners of the company have so far proven unsuccessful, and none of the radio stations are currently on the air.

In July, six businesses owing almost $28,000 in delinquent taxes were served with legal papers demanding they pay up. Those six were Jerry’s Department Store, Pine Bluff Furniture Co., Fiesta Mexicana Mexican Restaurant, Alan K. Minor CPA, Dr. James Trice Digestive Disease Center, and U.S. Recovery and Collection, and Stanton said Tuesday all six are now paid in full.

“That’s more money for the school districts and they need it,” Stanton said.

Business owners who currently owe taxes will find that Stanton has attached that total to their personal and/or real estate taxes, which all due Oct. 10.

“We’re going to get some of the money that’s owed that way,” she said.

For those that don’t pay their obligations, Stanton said a visit by a sheriff’s deputy delivering a certificate of indebtedness and a writ of execution could be in their future.

“We’re going to go ahead and file on some of them after the tax books close,” she said.

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