Defunct Rocky Hill Restaurant is a Top Tax Delinquent

A now-defunct Rocky Hill restaurant has made the state’s list of the top 100 businesses that are delinquent on their Connecticut taxes.

Tommaso LLC, which operated the restaurant Tommaso's Mezzo Giorno at 945 Cromwell Ave., owes the state $235,260.76 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.

Tommaso's, according to the local , has gone out of business. The eatery’s telephone service is out of order.

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 the 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 the state $15,677,922.50.