Horry businesses under fire for not paying taxes on time, including some well-known spots
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Dozens of Horry County businesses failed to pay employer taxes in the last quarter of 2018, prompting the S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce to file judgments Monday against each business.
The unemployment insurance tax was due Jan. 31, and at least 72 businesses around the county did not pay fourth quarter taxes last year after multiple notifications from SCDEW, said Dorothy Weaver with SCDEW. Businesses included in the list are Family Kingdom, Conway Hospital Community Services and LuLus North Myrtle Beach LLC.
Filing judgments against businesses is “part of our standard collection process when employers are delinquent in paying employer taxes,” Weaver said. As for next steps, Weaver said it depends on each individual case and how the business handles it.
“Businesses can certainly contact us about paying that,” she said, adding state law provides businesses several ways to pay.
According to the 15th Circuit Public Index, some businesses have thousands of dollars worth of judgment amounts, which include interest and penalties.
Conway Hospital Community Services, which has 13 practices in Conway, has a judgment just over $12,500, according to the public index. LuLus in North Myrtle Beach has a nearly $20,500 judgment, according to the index. Family Kingdom has a judgment of about $1,400, the public index shows.
Each business received phone calls, letters and notifications through their DEW accounts about the owed taxes, Weaver said.
David Meese, spokesperson for Family Kingdom, said the company experienced issues filing the tax last year.
“We did encounter a technical glitch at the end of last year with our filing, but did not realize immediately that the filing was not accepted,” Meese said via email. “Upon learning about the situation, we resubmitted the filing and paid the taxes due in full.”
LuLu’s spokesperson Kelly Toomey said the restaurant, which opened its North Myrtle Beach location in 2018, experienced problems with the online filing and payment setup.
“We continued to work with the Department of Employment and Workforce to rectify these problems, but the resolution process became complicated and delayed by Hurricane Florence in September 2018,” Toomey said in an email to The Sun News.
“In December 2018, when the online process was finally working properly, and we had a clear picture of the amount due for 2018 unemployment taxes, LuLu’s set up an approved payment plan with DEW and has faithfully made the required payments since. We have never ignored any attempts on their part to reach us, and we have documentation that illustrates that we are performing in accordance with the approved payment plan.”
The DEW is responsible for collecting, accounting and auditing the state’s unemployment insurance tax program. For-profit businesses and non-profits are required to establish an unemployment tax account with the DEW and are liable for quarterly tax contributions if they meet certain criteria.
The Sun News has reached out to spokespeople Conway Hospital Community Services, but did not hear back in time for this report.
This story was originally published March 8, 2019 at 1:05 PM.
