A South Bend funeral home will have to cease operations until it starts repaying more than $250,000 in back taxes, Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller announced on Tuesday.
After Clark-O'Neal Funeral Home Inc. failed to respond to 188 tax warrants, the state received a temporary restraining order against the company. The funeral home can finish any business it currently has scheduled, including any burials, showings or memorial services. However, it can't take on any new clients.
Indiana Department of Revenue records show that Clark-O'Neal didn't pay any corporate income taxes between December 2002 and January 2014. The funeral home owes the state $258,329.25.
“The Consumer Protection Division intends to put the consumers first in ensuring they and their loved ones are treated with dignity and respect and not inconvenienced while the unpaid taxes are addressed,” Zoeller said. “The state supports the role of long-established small businesses in the community; but when one company fails to pay the taxes it owes, it is unfair to other local businesspeople who pay theirs, and it undercuts the market and creates an unlevel playing field. With a quarter of a million dollars in unpaid taxes, the Department of Revenue had no alternative but to take this company to court.”