Uncle Sam says brewer owes taxes

Pittsburgh Brewing debt dates to 2001

Wednesday, August 31, 2005
By Len Boselovic, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

The U.S. Treasury is the latest creditor pursuing troubled Pittsburgh
Brewing over unpaid bills, saying it is owed nearly $746,000 in federal
excise taxes dating back to 2001.

The agency's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms made the claim in
a tax lien filed in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court Aug. 25. It
covers taxes that were due from December 2001 to April 2003.

"We are on a payment plan for that right now," spokesman Jeff Vavro
said, calling the matter "old news."

Pittsburgh Brewing is waiting on word from the Pension Benefit Guaranty
Corp. on whether it can terminate an underfunded pension plan covering
about 530 current and former employees. The Lawrenceville brewer told
the federal agency it will be forced out of business if it is required
to keep retirement promises it made.

As of June, the brewery had not made nearly $900,000 in required
contributions to the pension plan since October. Another $455,000
contribution was due last month, but Vavro said he did not know whether
it was made. The fund has a deficit of more than $5.6 million.

Meanwhile, the brewery is also being pursued by a Downtown law firm
over $107,800 in legal fees it says it is owed for helping Pittsburgh
Brewing win lower assessments on three Lawrenceville properties.

And there's been no movement in a dispute over $2 million in claims
against the brewery for unpaid sewage bills.

The brewery told the PBGC in April that it lost $1.2 million from
operations over the last three years despite $1 million in cost
reductions and forbearance by lenders, government agencies and others
who have granted concessions. The concessions included $4.6 million in
forgiven debt.

It'd be a shame to lose such a fine, fine beer.

*cough*

Eh, someone will buy the brand name from these guys after they go to jail
for tax evasion.
--
************************************************** ***************
Dan Iwerks is mighty in the ways of cheese.
The fundamental problem with Solipsism is it makes me
responsible for the fact that you're a complete idiot.
************************************************** ***************

Dan Iwerks wrote:
It'd be a shame to lose such a fine, fine beer.

*cough*

Eh, someone will buy the brand name from these guys after they go to jail
for tax evasion.

But it'd be such a shame to lose Olde Frothingslosh. :-0
--
Joel Plutchak "Nunca pierdas la oportunidad de callarte la boca."
plutchak at [...] - Isabel Allende

Man, I hope they hold out till my book comes out in three weeks...

--
Lew Bryson

"GOOD or SHITE?" -- Michael Jackson, "Thriller", 1982
www.lewbryson.com

They will Lew. They're like a cat. They always land on their feet.
I agree with their unwillingness to pay ALCOSAN. That's the place that
processes and cleans sanitary sewer water and waste before it goes into
the river. The fee is based on how much water you purchase, not how
much you put into the sewerage system.
For the household, wash your car, water your garden, hose off your deck
or driveway, etc., you pay ALCOSAN to "process" this water which never
goes into the sanitary sewers.
Now Pittsburgh Brewing probably buys water by the hundreds of thousands
of gallons, probably by the millions. And the majority of this water
doesn't go into the sewer, it goes out "through the front door."
But they went at it the wrong way. You don't just quit paying the bill,
you negotiate.