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IRS shuts Recycled Goods for back tax
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More from BusinessThe Internal Revenue Service shut down Recycled Goods Inc. in Ventura on Monday for failing to pay payroll taxes.
The company, which employs about 20 people, owes roughly $200,000 in payroll taxes from 2001-02.
Owner Tom Wasden said the IRS is not willing work out a payment plan, "and with the economy as bad as it is, we couldn't get a loan."
The company's IRS case manager did not return a phone call seeking comment. And Victor Omelczenko, IRS spokesman for the Los Angeles area, said he could not comment.
Wasden said the federal government has seized the business and will sell off its assets to cover the back taxes.
Founded in 1995, Recycled Goods sold wheelchairs, printers and sperm analyzers on its Web site, RecycledGoods.com. The company operated in a 15,000-square-foot building on King Drive, where thousands of products were neatly shelved and organized.
The business had been mostly Web-based, with a database of more than 100,000 customers, 10,000 of whom were dealers. The company also had hundreds of ongoing eBay auctions. A little more than a year ago, walk-ins were generating a small percentage of the company's $1 million in annual sales.
"It just doesn't seem like the right time for them to do this," Wasden said, stressing that business had finally been profitable after a long struggle to get things moving.
"It's absolutely shocking," said Grant Dolan, who's worked in sales and sourcing for Wasden. "I'm just scraping by too, and I've been working for Tom going on four years, and we've been living off bare bones to get to the point where we're looking forward to succeeding."
The company had built up its database and Web presence, he said. "We're at the cusp and then bam," Dolan said. "And I guess we're all out of a job."
— Staff writer Jenni Mintz contributed to this report.
Posted by wow on October 21, 2008 at 9:44 a.m. (Suggest removal)
i find it interesting that out of all the thousands of pieces of inventory recycled goods sells the staff writer picked sperm analyzers as her choices of inventory to draw the readers attention to. wow. i wonder why people recycle the star....
Posted by Ebit on October 21, 2008 at 1:55 p.m. (Suggest removal)
This article is written to sympathize with the business owner but let's get real. The company owed payroll tax liabilities which is not the same as income tax liabilities. Payroll tax liabilities are withheld from the employee's paycheck...this is the same as not paying the employee. No social security, federal or state withholdings were paid on the account of the employees. The owner stole from his employees, not the IRS. Also, there are collection procedures that the IRS must adhere to before seizing a business. The fact that the owner said the IRS wouldn't accept installment payments is suspect. The IRS will always try to negotiate and work something out with the taxpayer IF the taxpayer is communicating with the IRS. If you ignore them, they will seize your business.
Posted by wow on October 22, 2008 at 8:30 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I don't find the article sympathetic in any way, just a poorly written article about a business who found hard times and tried to keep its employees employed...it is interesting that you find it sympathetic though....wow...as stated in the article the owner was trying to work with the IRS...ah...but lets get those big AIG guys back to the spa...we can always help those valuable good decision making companies, and we can pay for it too. WOW...
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