LARNED — Sometime Thursday, March 16, Kansas Department of Revenue civil tax enforcement and Pawnee County Sheriff’s officers seized the business assets of Tabler Furniture Inc., which owed $49,409.21 in state sales and withholding taxes.
Tabler Furniture store, 401 Broadway St. in Larned, was closed, and seizure signs were posted at the entrances.
“This property has been temporarily seized for nonpayment of taxes, and is now in the possession of the State of Kansas,” the signs read.
Jeannine Koranda, director of communications with the Kansas Department of Revenue, said officers seized all known bank accounts, on-site cash, business inventory and personal property assets belonging to owners Kevin C & Kista M. Holt. The store was sealed closed and the assets will be sold at public auction to pay the taxes owed.
“Warrant execution occurs when all other collection attempts, including multiple letters, telephone calls, letters of impending legal action, tax liens filed with the local district court to secure the debt, previous bank levies and on-site till taps are executed to bring the taxpayer into compliance have been exhausted,” a statement from the Department of Revenue noted. “Only after several unsuccessful attempts does the department take the action of seizing assets, which in this instance resulted in the business being closed.
“The revenue department’s standard practice is to continually encourage delinquent taxpayers, who are not lawfully filing or paying taxes – such as sales or withholding – to voluntarily enter into a repayment agreement.
The Holts bought the furniture store in 2013 from Buddy Tabler, keeping the name Tabler Furniture. Prior to that, the store had been operated by the Tabler family since 1952.
The warrants for unpaid sales taxes were from June 2015 through November 2016 and were more than $40,000. There were also warrants for unpaid withholding taxes from October 2015 through November 2016.

An earlier version of this story was posted on Friday.