The District’s delinquent taxpayers list contains the names of 230 scofflaws who owe more than $24 million, but the city has played out all attempts to track down those debtors and has few options other than to write off the revenues as a loss.
“We’re at wits’ end,” said Glen Groff, director of the compliance administration in the Office of Tax and Revenue. “We have no debtor’s prison.”
The delinquent list’s largest debtor, as of December 2005, is Jac Thom Enterprises Inc., aka Sarge’s Liquor Post, which owes $4.2 million. The three names listed as the company’s responsible officers, Brenda Clarke, Alfred Thomas and Vondel McKethan, all have District addresses.
Cornelius and Kathleen Pitts of Durham, N.C. — who reportedly won no-bid contracts to operate an emergency homeless shelter in the early 1980s under the Marion Barry administration — are listed as owing $1.24 million. General Maintenance Service Inc. is on the hook for $1.25 million, but the responsible officer, Robert Sanders, can’t be found. Associated Mechanical Inc. and responsible officer Curtis Smith are listed as owing $744,498.
A person or business only makes the delinquent taxpayers list if the city has exhausted all collection methods and has placed a lien on assets, Groff said. The D.C. Code only aallows the city a decade to collect on a debt, so a company such as Sarge’s Liquor Post, which has topped the list for years, is essentially off the hook.
“They kind of stiffed us and we’re stuck,” Groff said.
The only way the money will be repaid is if a scofflaw wants to re-establish a business in the District or to clean up their credit. But removing them from the roster would clear them of responsibility, so there they remain.
“Possibly someone on the list might be shamed into paying,” Groff said, noting that a handful have come forward to repay.
Meanwhile, the District will collect nearly $500,000 in fines and restitution from Demetrios Anagnostiadis, 44, treasurer of Foxhall Gourmet of Georgetown Inc., and his father, Emanuel, the company’s president.
Demetrios Anagnostiadis also will spend 14 days in jail after he and his father pleaded guilty to seven counts of tax fraud violations.
Other names on the delinquent list
» Dunn and Sons Funeral Service, $678,547
» Impressions USA Inc., $496,388
» Industrial Steam Cleaning Inc., $492,761
» Lestandon Restaurant Corp., $489,659
