TEMPE, AZ — Every penny counts when you're running a small business. So when a local pizza place spent weeks trying to get a refund from the Arizona Department of Revenue with no success, they let ABC15 know.
Jerry De Souza owns the original Geno's Pizza in Tempe, and he says running a restaurant right now isn't easy.
"The cost of doing business nowadays… it's skyrocketed," De Souza said.
"Small businesses like this, we don't count dollars, we count pennies," De Souza added.
De Souza told the Let ABC15 Know team that back in June, the state charged the business twice for its sales taxes that month.
"The first day of every month is when we look at the bank statements, and we see what it was, and I noticed the same exact amount was taken out," De Souza explained.
De Souza says he called the Department of Revenue to get the issue fixed.
"That's when really the nightmare began," De Souza added.
He says he was told a supervisor would call him back, but that never happened.
"They're going to contact you within 48 hours to 72 hours, 48-72 hours came. So, then I called again, and we had the same exact conversation," De Souza said.
"I went through this... over 10 times, between 10 and 13 times, and I never got a phone call back. When I did finally get a phone call back, one of the first things out of the supervisor's mouth was, 'I see that you contacted us all these times,'" De Souza explained.
Weeks later, De Souza says he was finally able to get a refund check. But it was made out to the name registered on the business tax account, which didn't match his bank account, so he couldn't cash it.
"I called, and I said, 'No, no, no, this is wrong. It needs to be to the legal name. This is the legal name.' The lady took down the information, did the whole thing, and they sent another check," De Souza said.
He says that check had the wrong information on it again.
Tired of getting the runaround, De Souza emailed Let ABC15 know. We contacted the state Department of Revenue, and days later, he got his money.
"I can't thank you enough, you know, because that means a lot to us. It really does," De Souza said.
The state Department of Revenue sent us a statement about what happened with De Souza, saying in part, "ADOR’s records show that Mr. De Souza made two payments for the same liability through his business’s online account login, and ADOR processed each payment as submitted. Mr. De Souza called ADOR to report the duplicate payment, and ADOR’s system identified the overpayment and began processing a refund. ADOR issues refund checks in the name registered on a business’s tax account. This account was registered under the business’s “doing business as” (DBA) name, while the business’s bank account is in the corporation’s name, so the bank would not accept the first refund check. ADOR re-issued the second check, but at this point, we should have re-issued it with the corporation’s name. ADOR would later re-issue a check that could be accepted by his bank, but we acknowledge that it did take longer than it should have. ADOR apologized to Mr. De Souza and is addressing the root cause of the issue that occurred in this case."
and also added, "We recognize that resolving these situations relies on close collaboration between taxpayers and the department and we are continually working to ensure our processes are as smooth and responsive as possible."
The Arizona Department of Revenue says if a business owner believes a tax payment was withdrawn more than once, it should take these steps:
- Compare the payment confirmation with the business’s bank records to identify the duplicate transaction
- Contact ADOR at (602) 255-3381 to have the payment reviewed and any overpayment refunded
- If the problem is not resolved through normal channels, including when a request to speak with a supervisor has not been returned, contact ADOR’s Problem Resolution Office at problemresolutionoffice@azdor.gov. The office is here to help step in and offer quick support when regular channels have not led to a resolution.
As for De Souza, he says he felt relief that his fight for his money was finally over.
"If you didn't get involved… I'm 100% positive I'm not… I'm not guessing. 100% positive that I would still be in this rabbit hole, never-ending. And that's why I called you guys because I… I know what you guys do," De Souza said.
If you have a consumer problem that you need help with, Let ABC15 Know! Email consumer@abc15.com.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
