murky coffee capitol hill

Link to today's Washington Post article

It is with great sadness, regret, and shame that I report that murky coffee capitol hill will not reopen.

The above article in today's Metro section of the Washington Post sums up our situation fairly well: due to my own financial mismanagement, and the DC Office of Tax and Revenue's inability to revise their figures to the actual liability in time to be able to re-open the shop, the shop has been shut down and will not reopen.

I again thank everyone who has sent emails and messages of well-wishing and support. There have been many questions, and I'd like to address a few of them here now:

Q: What about the staff that we've come to love and appreciate?
A: A few have already found new employment at other local independent coffee shops and elsewhere. A few are now working at our Arlington shop. The staff is grateful for the outpouring of support for them specifically.

Q: Will this DC issue effect the Arlington shop?
A: The two shops are separate LLC's and separate companies. As far as I know, having received expert advice on this, there won't be. I have contacted Arlington County, as well as Virginia's tax authorities, and we have no issues that threaten a similar occurrence.

Q: What happens to the tax liabilities, now that you can't reopen?
A: I am committed to resolving all outstanding issues to mutual satisfaction, and as soon as possible. I am not, and never have been, interested in not living up to our obligations. The problems in DC were due to mismanagement that spun out of control.

Q: Can I use my gift certificate at the Arlington shop?
A: Absolutely

Q: Will you open a new shop in DC? If so, when?
A: We are hoping that we will, though that would require that all outstanding issues with DC are resolved first.

Q: Have you engaged any DC Council members, or other people to engage the DC OTR?
A: We had spoken to a couple individuals involved in the DC Council, and may request support from Council members soon. However, and perhaps (at least in hindsight) foolishly, I chose to engage the DC OTR directly and being completely forthcoming.

Q: Why couldn't things get worked out and the store reopened?
A: The DC OTR Audit Division assessed (estimated) our taxes for specific months and years at amounts ten-times higher than the actual amounts, resulting in the $427K published figure. Until the actual amounts would be entered into their records, we could not negotiate terms that would allow us to reopen (we expected that successful revisions to those assessments would have led to our reopening within days of the original action). As engaging the DC OTR continued to drag on slowly, our landlords for the Capitol Hill store were understandably unwilling to wait forever as their property remained locked up. Therefore, they chose to evict us, according to their rights. Our landlords have always been reasonable and understanding with us, and there is absolutely no ill-will towards them. They clearly had no choice. It is unfortunate that the DC OTR could not work with us to allow us to reopen when we had a chance.

If there are any questions or comments, feel free to email me at nick@ (and then murkycoffee.com). Thanks again to all, for your comments both positive and critical. I completely deserve what angry commentary that I have received, and I can only hope that I will be able to re-earn your trust.

Sincerely,
Nick Cho

murky capitol hill updates

As varying reports about the state of the Capitol Hill shop pop up in different places, I wanted to take a moment to clarify a few points.

- I'm still hopeful that the DC Office of Tax and Revenue will be able to work with us to get murky capitol hill reopened. That office continues to play hot-potato with us, and we're stuck in a now almost month-long holding-pattern, with a new "you need to talk to so-and-so" every few days.
- The $427,395 figure mentioned in the Voice of the Hill and elsewhere is our current "in the system" liability to DC, with the majority of that amount based on assessments from their audit office: from 2 particular months in 2006 for sales tax, and two filings for "unincorporated franchise tax" (which is like income tax on the business profits). Those assessments were for over $200,000 more than the actual submitted returns. All four of those returns WERE previously submitted to the DC tax office (they have the "true" filings for months before and after the months in question), but they were apparently lost by the DC office. ("assessments" are estimates by the tax office)
- Part of the "holding pattern" right now is that we need to correct that $427,395 figure down to the accurate figures. Copies of those previously submitted returns had been sent to the DC Office of Tax and Revenue immediately after the shop was shut down, but the Audit department there has played hot-potato (so to speak) with them ever since.
- I have never denied my responsibility to pay these taxes. There were mistakes made due to financial mismanagement in more than one way. That said, I have complied 100% with the DC OTR since this issue came up, and have dialed 202-442-____ phone numbers no less than 500 times (with 490 of those times resulting in nobody picking up), trying and pleading with the DC OTR to work with us to resolve the issues. To this date, we have made little to no apparent progress with them.

Thank you for all of the support and emails. I offer my sincerest apologies to everyone, particularly to folks who have left comments or sent emails that express some level of displeasure, for this whole debacle.

Stay tuned.
Nick