Burleson bar closed by state over back taxes. Fort Worth councilman is part owner
The state has seized liquor and closed a Burleson bar that is partly owned by Fort Worth City Councilman Cary Moon, saying the business owes nearly $82,000 in unpaid sales taxes.
Moon disputes the amount of back taxes.
The Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts impounded the contents of the bar at Dalton’s Corner, a bar and restaurant at 200 S. Main St. in downtown Burleson, late Friday morning. The business owes about $81,700 in taxes, the bulk of which are unpaid liquor sales taxes, according to the comptroller’s office.
Moon owns a 14.5% investment in the business, according to a 2018 tax document. Moon’s company, Moon Financial, owns the building and several other Tarrant County restaurants.
A comptroller audit from July 2014 through December 2017 showed Dalton’s Corner failed to pay $71,000 in liquor taxes, comptroller spokesman Kevin Lyons said. Another audit showed about $10,000 in unpaid taxes from October through December of last year.
The comptroller’s office contacted the owners of Dalton’s Corner last March about the unpaid taxes, Lyons said. The business has 20 days to resolve the debt, either through full payment or a payment plan, otherwise more property may be seized. Seizure of a business’s property is usually the last move of the agency after several other remedies, such as account levies and account freezes, Lyons said.
Moon said about $24,000 in taxes have been paid to the state, but he and business partner Marshall Walker dispute the findings of the audit.
“If we owe it, we’ll pay,” Moon said of the unpaid taxes.
Moon and a group of Burleson friends formed the partnership that owns Dalton’s Corner around 2011, he said, and he has been the involved in several other restaurant concepts in the Fort Worth area. Moon was heavily involved in the construction of the building, but turned the day-to-day management over to another party who failed to run the restaurant well, he said. In February, Walker and Moon sought more control in the company in hopes of turning around the struggling business, Moon said.
“For me I felt like I was going to be able to clean up a mess,” he said, adding that he hasn’t been a business manager in the restaurant since 2012.
In Burleson, food must account for at least 50 percent of sales at a bar. At first, the restaurant had no trouble making the split, but over time Dalton’s Corner began to attract more drinkers than eaters, said Walker, the current business manager. He took over the operation early last year.
Walker voiced frustration with the audit, saying discrepancies between how much liquor they bought and how much they sold to customers failed to account for several factors, such as bartenders over-pouring drinks or giving them away and theft.
“It’s kind like you’re guilty first, and you have to prove yourself innocent,” Walker said. “That’s how I feel about it.”
Moon noted that he is owner or part owner in about 30 other “successful, well run businesses,” including Keller Tavern, Trinity Tavern and Arlington Music Hall. He and business partners plan to open two more bars in the next year — one in Keller and one in Arlington.
“We’re ultimately going to do the right thing,” Moon said. “We’re not going to under pay, but we’re not going over pay.”
This story was originally published February 7, 2020 at 6:36 PM.
