One of Richmond’s favorite breweries is fighting the city over back taxes relating to the city’s prepared meals tax, but they’ve got some powerful allies in the fight.
One of Richmond’s favorite breweries is fighting the city over back taxes relating to the city’s prepared meals tax, but they’ve got some powerful allies in the fight.
Hardywood Park Craft Brewery, known for their seasonal brews and food-truck Thursdays at their Ownby Lane home, is prepped for a legal fight against the City of Richmond over $50K in back taxes, according to the Times-Dispatch.
Check out some details below:
The fight stems from the city’s efforts to collect about $50,000 in back meals taxes it believes Hardywood should have collected on pitchers and pints served from July 2012 to July 2013.
The brewery contends that, in a period of confusion over whether the 6 percent meals tax applies to craft breweries without kitchens, the city told Hardywood on multiple occasions that it did not need to collect the tax.
Richmond’s prepared meals tax, the flood-wall holding back many corporate restaurants in the city but also burdening local restaurants, is one of the highest in the country at 6%. It is collected by the city directly.
Some foods and beverages escape the tax, and that’s where Hardywood’s confusion comes from.
According to the TD, Hardywood was originally told they would not need to pay the tax because alcohol was excluded from the original language of the tax. But that changed when City Council re-wrote the code to include booze.
The brewer has offered to settle the dispute for $5K, but the city still wants the full payment.
Luckily, Hardywood has a number of powerful allies, including 1st district Councilman Jon Baliles.
“It’s astonishingly bad form that the city is choosing to punish some of the craft brewers that have put Richmond on the map in the first place,” Baliles told the TD.
The TD’s article gives a great summation of the issue – check it out here.
