Maserati dealership sued by Tarrant County over reporting violations

As the Park Place Maserati dealership zoomed out of town last week, it apparently left owing Tarrant County tens of thousands of dollars.

Tarrant County Tax Assessor Collector Ron Wright filed a lawsuit Monday against the high-dollar dealership for not filing mandatory state motor vehicle inventory statements for several months in 2014. The business shut down last week and is merging with its store in Dallas.

The penalties for not filing the reports — $500 a month per report — are “onerous,” Wright admits. The dealership could owe up to $99,000 in fines, penalties and attorneys fees, when compounded, if the issue is not settled by the end of the year, according to court documents.

“I don’t like it, personally, but the law doesn’t give you any discretion. I can’t say, ‘I’m going to ignore it,’ ” Wright said. “They know the law and they have to comply.”

Wright stressed that the lawsuit is simply over a reporting violation and that the dealership does not owe money on its inventory of vehicles. The prices of the cars ranged up to $130,000.

Carolyn Alvey, a spokeswoman for the Dallas-based Park Place dealerships, said that the dealership never owed any back taxes and that the issue is being resolved. She said the dealership wasn’t notified until May that it owed any money.

“This was a situation of a form not being filed in an appropriate manner with the tax assessors office and it has been resolved,” Alvey said. Wright also confirmed that the two sides are talking.

The Maserati dealership, located at 5760 Bryant Irvin Road, opened with much fanfare in June 2014. The 11,000-square-foot showroom and service center sported Italian floor tiles and the Italian collection of furnishings by Cassina.

The showroom was down the street from Park Place’s Mercedes Benz dealership and its popular Park Place BodyWerks auto body shop. The Mercedes Benz dealership’s pre-owned operations and the auto body will expand into the former Maserati dealership’s space, Alvey said.

“Maserati is an incredible brand that the Dallas-Fort Worth market continues to enjoy. However, sales in Fort Worth were not as swift as we had hoped and therefore there was a need to consolidate the business to the Dallas location,” she said.

The tax collector uses the inventory tax statement to assess and calculate taxes, to prepare tax bills and collect the proper amount of taxes owed by dealers on the sale of motor vehicles.

The county properly notified Park Place concerning the missing forms before turning it over to an attorney to collect it, Wright said, adding it’s ultimately their responsibility to comply.

“Park Place is not a small-time operation,” Wright said.

This story contains material from the Star-Telegram archives.

This story was originally published August 2, 2016 at 6:10 PM with the headline "Maserati dealership sued by Tarrant County over reporting violations."