Restaurant facing loss of business license again for not remitting collected sales tax

Sep. 19—A Sixth Avenue Southeast restaurant is in trouble again over unpaid sales taxes, and Decatur City Council members don't appear to be in a forgiving mood this time.

Tio Juan Mexican Grill, 1318 Sixth Ave. S.E., has not remitted sales taxes collected with meal sales this summer and could lose its business license as soon as October.

Finance Department Manager Lori Rossetti told the City Council on Monday that Tio Juan did not submit sales taxes collected "in May, June, July and now August," and they had not responded to attempts by the city to contact them.

Rossetti said that Mirna Cendejas, daughter of the Tio Juan owner and manager of the restaurant, finally contacted her Tuesday and said she planned to come by City Hall but made no appearance Tuesday or Wednesday.

Cendejas declined comment when contacted by The Decatur Daily on Wednesday.

The Decatur City Council on Monday voted unanimously to put Tio Juan on conditional suspension, a step toward revocation of its business license.

City Attorney Herman said this resolution gives the restaurant 30 days to respond and submit the money owed to the city. The City Council set Oct. 17 as the deadline.

The city requires that businesses report their gross receipts and then remit sales taxes collected based on those receipts by the 20th of each month. The deadline for liquor tax revenue submission is the 15th of each month.

Rossetti said Tio Juan has not submitted a gross receipts report for the past four months, so she does not know how much the restaurant owes.

Tio Juan got behind an estimated $22,000 from September 2022 to September 2023 and caught up Oct. 16 with a last-minute check. Cendejas told the council at the time that they've had "a lot of miscommunication" with the city as it changed bookkeepers.

The City Council voted last year not to put the restaurant on a six-month probation, but some council members said they likely won't be as forgiving this time around.

"I wish it could be revoked immediately," Councilman Carlton McMasters said. "But the way the ordinance is set up is a conditional revocation. We've got to do something with that problem."

McMasters pointed out Tio Juan is collecting sales taxes from local residents who are expecting this money to go to the government and then not submitting it.

"That, in the most simplest of terms, is theft," McMasters said.

Councilman Hunter Pepper was even more blunt on his feelings about Tio Juan's situation.

"I think we should take their license and never give it back," Pepper said. "This has been numerous times for this to occur. They failed to maintain contact. An officer went out to contact them, and they still have not made any payment arrangements. I have no empathy or sympathy. Let's revoke their license and don't give it back."

Councilman Jacob Ladner said the council must follow the established process.

"I definitely think people need to pay," Ladner said. "They're collecting those taxes from our citizens, and they need to remit them to the city."

Ladner said the city spent "lots of hours trying to help them," but got no response and Tio Juan ended up in the same situation.

"They obviously have not fixed from an accounting and remitting standpoint — it's a problem," Ladner said. "It's unfair to the hundreds or thousands of businesses that are in Decatur that do remit their sales taxes."

Councilman Kyle Pike said it's unfortunate that Tio Juan is back in in the same situation again.

"I don't necessarily want to get out of the process we've done before, but, as much as we want to work with business owners, these are tax dollars that people are paying when they go in to eat at a restaurant," Pike said.

Councilman Billy Jackson said he likes the restaurant and wants to obtain more information on the reason for the delayed payment before voting on a revocation.