Arkansas Blog

"Nobody asked, says Travs' GM Bill Valentine"

That's pretty pathetic.

I would be embarrassed to offer up such a lame excuse.

Do one told me I had to collect says tax for my business, but it's my responsibility to know the laws and rules that come with owning a business.

Can you say Penalty plus interest!

Interesting how the suspendered one denied any wrongdoing, asserting, "You have to remember, I'm Bill Valentine ..." then he referred questions to the Travs VP, an attorney.

Plus, of course, if you charge the tax to your customers and then do not remit it you are stealing from them. Anyone who has a receipt from those days showing that he was charged for the tax could get a lovely class-action suit going, perhaps.

Plus what if you carefully kept your receipts and deducted the city sales (burger) tax? Could you now be in trouble with the feds?

Just another case of city government and its related agencies acting as lords of the manor with what they consider absolute sway over their fiefdoms instead of as servants of the public.

The public should demand similar special treatment. None of us pay the hamburger tax for a year. Let the city eat cake!

Screw the Travs! and screw our city leaders too.

Yep, I said it. The Travs ditched LR and LR was short sighted enough to let them go.

These are the poeple we have chosen to run our city.

When the schools sell refreshments at their ath-uh-letic events, do they collect and remit the tax?

How about the Razorbacks when they play in Little Rock?

Or when Jennings Osborne used to sell his barbecue platters for $5 at the Razorback games, did he collect and remit sales tax?

"Nobody asked..."

I agree...what a lame excuse...

And it does seem there should be some recourse...right?

I dropped plenty of money at Ray Winder...

When the Razorbacks play in LR they have nothing to do with the concessions and get no money from their sales. According to the paper the ordinance was amened in 2003 to include concession stands, but whether anybody is checking is another question.

I'm shocked, simply shocked, that athletics would get special treatment in Arkansas.

Carrick, if it ever occurred to any public official that he or she is a "servant," it would have been but a fleeting moment. Well, there is a sterling exception: Jim Argue of the Arkansas Senate.

Uh Servus, don't like to bring up legal stuff, seems to tax you more than other concepts but public school and state universities are in effect government entities. You do not tax a part of yourself.

But doesn't the entire episode speak volumes about Huckabuck's "fair tax" national sales tax scheme? Imagine the stadium scenario mulitplied a million times.
_

I know you're kidding when you say "I'm shocked, simply shocked, that athletics would get special treatment in Arkansas." I do believe the Dept of Ed keeps lowering the GPA requirements for athletes just SO the schools can get their better players play time. At least the player is smart enough not to drop the ball, which is more than I can say for the CVB. I'm with ever other one on this. This "Nobody asked" response is a load of crap. Are the Travs & Valentine implementing the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy now?

First of all, I am no lawyer, I dont play one on TV, and I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, but...If the ordinance was amended in 2003 to include concession stands, how do the Travs owe "decades" of back taxes?

If they started paying in 2005, it seems like they would only owe one or two years worth of taxes...maybe. When an ordinance is passed, does it go into effect immediately or would a 2003 ordinance go into effect on 01/01/2004?

I might be wrong, but it seems to me that the paper needed a story so they made one up.

From the Department of Finance and Administration online sales and excise tax rules and regulations:

*****
GR-79. PERSONS LIABLE FOR TAX :
A. The tax must be collected, reported and remitted by the seller of tangible personal property; the seller or collector of admissions to places of amusement, recreational or athletic events; the seller of privileges of access to, or the use of amusement, entertainment, athletic, or recreational facilities; and by any other person furnishing any ser-vice subject to the tax.

B. If the seller of tangible personal property or taxable services is a corporation and if the corporation fails to collect, truthfully account for, and remit the proper amount of tax, in-terest and penalty, then the officers or employees of the corporation charged with those duties shall also be personally, jointly and severally liable for a penalty equal to the amount of the tax.
*****

Just curious, will Mr. Valentine be asked to pay for the tax that he failed to collect? Seems to me that the DFA doesn't just overlook failure to collect and pay over the tax - when they find a scofflaw, they are supposed to audit his records, assess the tax, penalties and interest and enforce collection. And if the deadbeat didn't collect it from his customers, then whatever he SHOULD have collected comes out of his pocket.

Is there a statute of limitations for failoure to report (or for underreporting) his sales that Mr. Valentine can hide behind to protect his pockets?

Since everyone, including the DFA, now knows there is an openly confessed and acknowledged motherlode of delinquent tax revenues available for the asking, when should Mr. Valentine expect the DFA auditors to show up?

If DFA does nothing about this, shouldn't the same privilege be extended to all other businesses that shirk their responsibilities and screw the taxpayers?

Given the way the city hamburger tax revenues were squandered by the Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau who used it as a slush fund. I wish no one had collected it. The tax needs to be repealed.

Don--The regulations you cite are for collection of sales taxes. The local "hamburger" tax is not collected by the state and is not subject to the state DF&A regulations. That doesn't make non-payment right, of course.

Don--The regulations you cite are for collection of sales taxes. The local "hamburger" tax is not collected by the state and is not subject to the state DF&A regulations. That doesn't make non-payment right, of course.

ARK. BLOG: I checked this right off and should have made clear that, yes, CVB collects the burger tax. The state collects everything else, inlcuding local sales taxes. Here, the money just wasn't collected. It's not a matter of collecting money that wasn't remitted.

Why come down so hard on the suspendered one? what about all of the convenience stores/gas stations that sell beer at cost as a loss leader, collect the (12%) tax when it is sold, then at the end of the month report all of those thousands of beer dollars as (non-taxable) gasoline & diesel fuel sales to the DF&A, pocketing the sales taxes they collected? Now that would make a story!

All this talk of taxes is great, but the topic is making me hungry for either nachos or a hot dog. I can't decide which.

Maybe the ballpark snacks need a feature on the Eat Arkansas Blog.

Stump, DSP has some BBQ nachos that I cannot get enough of!

For a patented Bill Valentine rant in rebuttal, see the Travelerocity blog by clicking my name. For the unitiated, Bill Valentine walks on water, is never wrong, single handedly has saved Arkansas from being without baseball, and could probably personally mediate the debate between Roy Brooks & the school board if someone would just ask him. In fairness, has he done good things for the community? Absolutely. Has he had a major role in the history of Arkansas baseball? Absolutely. But, even with the new stadium, the professionalism and overall quality of operations of the Travelers franchise still lags notably behind many, if not most others in minor league baseball. Within that context, could the tax allegations be plausible. IMO, absolutely. Bill ostensibly "stepped down" as general manager recently. I doubt that much has changed in terms of who is making decisions. I think it's time for some fully fresh blood at Dickey-Stephens

Okay - for some reason if you preview your message before posting it, the URL doesn't carry forward (Max?). Try:

www.travelerocity.blogs.com

Nom de P, many of us who use the URL feature have learned to avoid the preview for that very reason, and have tried to share the secret with others. Nothing like learning the hard way, though.

It's been brought to the attention of the Blogster(s) many times. Maybe it's something that can't be fixed.

Rats.

>>f DFA does nothing about this, shouldn't the same privilege be extended to all other businesses that shirk their responsibilities and screw the taxpayers?<<

That's a great idea Donkey, give it a go.
Skip paying yours for at least two years.

Lwood:
I thought you said It was easier to just file fake income tax returns and claim inflated telephone excise tax credits. Did that work better?