Attorney Beverly Graham is contemplating filing a lawsuit against Lowe’s Chama Valley Supermarket for overcharging customers on sales tax from its reopening Dec. 17 until Jan. 2.
The Village of Chama charges a 7.25 percent gross receipts tax on non-food sales, but Graham said Lowe’s was charging 7.7 percent.
“Their receipts do not list the sales tax rate,” the Chama-based lawyer said. “This is the first time I’ve ever seen a store do that. It looks mighty suspicious.”
Store manager Robert Giron admitted that Lowe’s had been overcharging customers, but said the problem has been fixed.
“It was fixed (Jan. 1) or (Jan. 2),” Giron said. “I forget which. It was just our store (in Chama), just an oversight on somebody’s part as we installed all the new software.”
Giron said that he was unsure what percentage tax was being charged, but confirmed it was “higher than the city’s 7.25.”
“I am concerned for the community,” Graham said. “The store is the major source of gross receipts taxes for Chama. There has to be some recompense for the entire community. Put together, we’re talking about a lot of money.”
A Chama resident, who asked not to be named by the SUN, said that she realized customers were being overcharged on Dec. 19 and that the problem had not been fixed when she shopped again Dec. 31.
“When I went back to the store on Jan. 2, the rate had been lowered,” she said. “I had called the Village Hall and they said they’d look into it. But I went back yesterday and they said they hadn’t done anything about it. I only lost a few dollars but I don’t like to be taken. It really got my dander up. It’s not right for the whole town to pay more than they’re supposed to. Some of the items sold at the store are very expensive — washers, driers, hardware.”
Graham said customers who take receipts to the store should be reimbursed. But she said she is considering the possibility of a lawsuit to recover the money lost to overcharges at the store.
“We will take whatever legal means are necessary,” Graham said.
Giron said he did not know what Lowe’s would do with the extra tax money the store had collected.
“To be honest, I just don’t know,” he said. “After we heard from Beverly Graham that she had five clients who were complaining about the extra tax, I contacted the corporate office in Texas and spoke with (Lowe’s Chief Financial Officer) Ronnie Rogers and the (computer) technology people. They took it from there and fixed the problem.”
Rogers did not return calls for comment.
“We didn’t hear from a single customer,” Giron said. “It was a good thing Beverly called me, or nobody would’ve known about the problem.”
State Taxation and Revenue Department Economist Clinton Turner said the store’s gross receipt taxes are reported and paid to the state each month, then remitted back to the Village and Rio Arriba County by the state. Turner was unsure how the state could collect the extra tax money from the store.
“I don’t think there’s a mechanism in place to remit over-charged taxes,” Turner said. “The tax owed is based on the store’s gross sales — not what’s collected (from customers). The legal burden is on the store itself.”
Turner said that the failure of the store’s receipts to list tax rates is “unusual,” but said the omission did not break any state laws.
Asked whether the Village had contacted Lowe’s to ask about the sales tax overcharges, Village treasurer Barbara Daggett said that she had not,
“That’s a state audit responsibility,” Daggett said. “You have to take some things on faith.”