Durham Firm one of State's Biggest Tax Delinquents

A Durham company that operates a chain of restaurants in the region, and whose principal partner was arrested a year ago on tax evasion charges, has made the state’s list of the top tax delinquents in Connecticut.

S&J Restaurant LLC, of 251 Tri Mountain Road, owes the state $976,520.13 in unpaid sales and use taxes, according to the list maintained by the state’s Department of Revenue Services. Sales and use are the state taxes retailers add to the cost of their products. Retailers under state law must collect the tax at the point of sale and pass it on to the state.

Those who fail to do so can find themselves on the revenue services department’s list of the top 100 tax delinquents. S&J Restaurant LLC not only made that list, the firm is currently the state’s fourth-highest delinquent.

The agent listed for S&J Restaurant is Anthony Prifitera, of 251 Tri Mountain Road. He was by revenue services agents on 29 tax evasion charges. Prifitera operated three Humphrey’s Grille & Bar restaurants, in Wallingford, Branford and Wethersfield.

According to town records, Prifitera bought the home in Durham in July 2010 and transfered ownership shortly thereafter, in October to Giovana Farina.

The state revenue services department publishes online its list of the top 100 business tax delinquents, as well as a list of the top 100 individual tax delinquents, as a form of “public shaming,” intended to encourage delinquents to pay their back taxes, said Sarah E. Kaufman, a spokesman for the department.

“No one wants to be known as a tax delinquent and here’s this public list where people can go online and see if their neighbors or their family is a tax delinquent,” Kaufman said.

The tactic, she added, is used as a last resort and usually is done so only after the state has made countless efforts, over months and sometimes years, to collect the back taxes.

“Generally, we’ve been trying to work with them for some time before they’re put on that list. We understand the implications of having your name on this list, so we want to make sure that we make every effort before we put them on it.”

Everyone on both lists is warned ahead of time, via letter by the revenue services department, that their name will be published if they don’t pay their taxes, Kaufman said. Everyone on the list is at least 90 days behind on their taxes and no one on either list is in bankruptcy, she added.

The top 100 delinquent businesses collectively owe the state $29,272,802.71 in back taxes. The top 100 individual delinquent taxpayers collectively owe $15,677,922.50.