Nearby: Brass Rail Restaurant Shut Down Over Tax Violation

The Brass Rail restaurant, owned by Magtat, Inc., has been shut down since October 2011 due to a history of non-payment (since 2008) of the Allegheny County Alcoholic Beverage Tax, attorney Jake S. Lifson said in an email on Tuesday.

Lifson, of the law firm Goehring, Rutter & Boehm, responded to an email sent by the Baldwin-Whitehall Patch to webmaster.treasurer@alleghenycounty.us inquiring about the state of The Brass Rail, which has been tagged as closed by the Allegheny County Sheriff's Office.

The Brass Rail sits near the corner of the Bill Green Shopping Center in Pleasant Hills Borough, just over the southern border of .

Lifson said that Allegheny County initiated a lawsuit against Magtat, Inc., for collection of delinquent drink tax in September 2009 but that, in December 2009, Magtat filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which delayed the county's pending action.

Magtat was dismissed from bankruptcy court in September 2011, Lifson said, and the county's lawsuit reopened.

A hearing in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas in September 2011 resulted in a $47,933.09 judgment against Magtat, Lifson said. The county executed that judgment in October, and the sheriff levied on The Brass Rail's assets to satisfy the judgment.

After the county's execution and levy, Lifson said, the Internal Revenue Service asserted tax liens against Magtat. "The IRS liens are greater in amount and have priority over the county's judgment," Lifson said, "and therefore, the county is releasing its levy to allow the IRS to levy on Magtat's property and expose it to a public sale to satisfy IRS liens."

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