“Unbeknownst to me, part of my job would be sales tax compliance,” Wright said. “I really did not know that before I took the job.”
“As I dug deeper into the noncompliance facets of what I was seeing, it became apparent to me that there’s almost a culture of noncompliance,” Wright said. The audit process can only go back three years. If business owners don’t have a license to operate in Bethel or haven’t been paying their monthly sales tax, the city can request payment for that three-year period.
“I got a business license, and now I’m being audited without having made a penny on this business license,” Barr said. “When we go out and we deliver this hard delivery of ‘I’m going to put a lien on your house, I’m going to put a lien on your boat, I’m going to put a lien on your snowmachine,’ I think we can do better as a city organization.”
“He threw the book at me. Every violation, every interest penalty, failure to produce records, failure to establish a business license,” Sargent said. “He filed a lien against me. The city manager and the finance director didn’t give me any warning, no letter in the mail.”