More than $2 million is owed in back sales tax by an Elbridge business, the state department of taxation and finance says.
GLB Enterprises, a business run out of a Dodier Drive home, is on a state list of the top 250 business debtors in the state. The state says Gary Bard, who owns or has owned the business, owes $2,054,495.33 in sales tax to the state. Bard at one time operated Hess gas stations, including the Elbridge Mobil gas station on Route 5 and the Auburn Hess Station on Grant Street in the city of Auburn.
There are two tax warrants out for Bard, said tax department spokesman Geoff Gloak.
The first was filed in 2004 for $1.7 million, which accounts for missing sales tax between 1989 and 2000, Gloak said. The second, filed in February, is for an additional $317,000 for sales taxes, between 1992 and 1996.
The tax warrants, Gloak said, is part of a civil process, rather than a criminal process. Gloak believes the sales tax paid to GLB Enterprises was never remitted to the state.
“Sales tax is collected from taxpayers who fully expect that sales taxes are going to be transferred to our department,” he said.
“When you buy a sandwich or a car, you are expecting the sales taxes are not ending up in the pocket of the merchant, bur rather being provided to the government agency that’s appropriate.”
Bard plead guilty in 2000 in Onondaga County court to felony tax evasion after admitting to pocketing nearly $175,000 in state sales tax funds from the two businesses. He plead guilty to one count of third-degree grand larceny.
GLB Enterprises was listed as the 31st most delinquent businesses in Onondaga County, according to a database put out by the state each month. Five Onondaga County businesses are listed, owing $4.1 million in taxes to the state.
