The county and West Chester were forced to sue Marvel Management and Ali Khokhar, franchisee and owner of the Comfort Inn and Suites at 5944 West Chester Road, to recoup $424,942 combined in back property and hotel taxes plus penalties.
The county began foreclosure proceedings against him for $232,616 in unpaid property taxes and penalties in April 2022. It filed another lawsuit for delinquent hotel taxes — dating back to 2020 — in September 2022. The final hotel tax judgement order was for $64,824 for all of 2021 and the first three quarters last year.
He signed a repayment agreement for the property taxes with the county treasurer’s office in May 2022 and his outstanding bill now stands at $141,319. He is paying $3,190 a month for five years.
As for the hotel tax, the Butler County lodgings tax is a total of 6%, with the county and local jurisdictions where hotels reside splitting it 50/50. The tax is paid by hotel users. The hotels are required to self report their occupancy rates and pay the taxes monthly.
Mike Stein, a director in County Auditor Nancy Nix’ office, told the Journal-News Khokhar’s outstanding hotel tax is still $64,824 and counting. They are past due for the past four quarters worth of hotel taxes.
“They haven’t filed a return since fourth quarter of 2022, so if they don’t file a return we don’t know how much revenue they’ve brought in in that quarter, so we wouldn’t know what the amount due would be,” Stein said.
Chief Assistant Prosecutor Dan Ferguson said they couldn’t go for foreclosure over the hotel tax previously because they just received the certified judgment from the court. If he still refuses to pay, that’s the next step.
“We’ve got to bring him to the point where they get the understanding we’ll sell it (the hotel) over the excise tax,” Ferguson said. “It will be the next step in the process.”
The township sued him in April 2021 in Area III Court looking for $14,999, based on average monthly amounts of $4,025 paid in 20217 through 2019. The court issued a judgement in that amount that September. It went unpaid so they sued again in November 2021, to no avail. The case moved onto the Butler County Common Pleas Court where the judge issued a final order for $91,458.
Finance Director Ken Keim told the Journal-News that with the unpaid hotel taxes and late fees, Khokhar owed and has now paid $127,502 — as a result of the court case — as of about a month ago. He still owes July, August and September, but the township is optimistic he’ll pay.
“That big payment, that’s got us smiling again and we’re all wishing him well and looking to this relationship be productive again,” Keim said.
Khokhar could not be reached for comment but he told the Journal-News in July his payment troubles were pandemic-induced.
“It did put us in a grave hole for two years. It just has been difficult to dig out of it,” Khokhar said. “Finally after almost three years it has somewhat gotten back to where we were before the pandemic hit. So now we’re finally able to resolve all things that were in the backlog.”
About the Author