UWS Eatery Burke & Wills Seized For Nearly $300k Tax Debt: State

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — Upper West Side restaurant Burke & Wills was seized Wednesday by the New York State tax department for neglecting to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in state sales taxes, a department spokesman told Patch.

The restaurant — which serves up Australian cuisine on West 79th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue — had four open warrants against it and owed the state $295,915, a state tax department spokesman told Patch.

While the seizure may seem sudden for neighborhood residents it's actually part of an ongoing process between the business and the state, a state tax department spokesman told Patch. Seizing a business is generally a "last-resort" action after failing to come to a mutually beneficial solution.

Management at Burke & Wills had no comment about the seizure except that the business is working to resolve the situation.

The restaurant's owner Tim Harris told the West Side Rag, which first reported the seizure, that he inherited the sales tax debt when he bought Burke & Wills current space.

"Burke & Wills was born from the ashes of the Moo Life Group (The Sunburnt Cow, The Sunburnt Calf, Bondi Road and The Sunburnt Calf BK), where I was involved in a managerial capacity," Harris told the West Side Rag through a spokesperson. "After the Sunburnt Cow was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy, I purchased the current Burke & Wills space, which was part of Moo Life Group. As a result, I inherited the debt incurred from the storm, which included a sum owed to NYS for sales taxes owed."

The business owner is working with the state to clear up the "misunderstanding" that led to the seizure, he told the West Side Rag in a statement.

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