Moss Seized for Non-Payment of Taxes

Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.

Major Soho design shop Moss has been seized by the State of New York due to tax problems. At least as early as yesterday evening, the store was closed and an orange "SEIZED" sign was posted to the door, along with a notice stating that all property inside now belongs to the state. (Moss being Moss, this means that our local government is now the proud owner of, among other things, this $4,900.00 glow-in-the-dark sofa.)

Owner Murray Moss and partner Franklin Getchell sent around an email today reassuring fans of the store that it's not going out of business. The tax issue, they wrote, was a problem of bureaucracy, not finances:

As explained to us yesterday, mid-day, during an unexpected visit by officials from the NY State Tax Department, due to our failure to file a document (one of literally hundreds!) with the Department, an official, non-negotiable ‘procedure’ was triggered, whereby Moss was required to temporarily close.

A few paragraphs down, they address the problem of selling high-end, high-concept furniture and housewares during a serious recession:

Because we’ve all been in dialogue, we know that many of you, like Moss, during the severe economic downturn of the past two years, in addition to possibly downsizing where logical, until growth is again possible, have entered into negotiations with various business partners, as well as the State, to arrive at mutually acceptable financial arrangements which make sense and allow for a stable, doable plan going forward. We have put financing in place, adjusted our overhead, and re-evaluated our projections, and are ready to go forward. This is to re-iterate to our friends: we are, in short, ok.

And Archpaper got a more succinct quote when they emailed to ask whether the company was facing bankruptcy: "100% NOT TRUE!"
· The Taxman Cometh for Moss [Archpaper]
· Moss Closes [Mondo-Blogo]

Moss

150 Greene Street, New York NY