Georgetown Cupcake: Lien Filed For Almost $200k In Unpaid Sales Taxes (UPDATED)

WASHINGTON -- D.C.'s Georgetown Cupcake is usually associated with long lines. Now it's also got big liens.

The Washington Business Journal got hold of a document that the famous bakery -- featured on TLC's reality show "DC Cupcake" -- might not want shown on television: it's a lien filed by D.C.'s Office of Tax and Revenue, for almost $200,000 in unpaid sales taxes.

The lien, filed Thursday with D.C.'s Recorder of Deed, shows Georgetown Cupcake owing $189,282.71 for unpaid sales taxes from September, October and November 2012, plus interest and penalties.

The Washington Business Journal has more:

An attorney representing Georgetown Cupcake acknowledged that a series of sales tax returns were filed last fall without checks. Negotiations were ongoing between the cupcakery and the tax office regarding a settlement offer, but those talks apparently hit a snag, the attorney said.

Representatives of the tax office told the Washington Business Journal that the cupcake shop had been told that the lien might be filed, and that "the next step could include seizure or the removal of the store’s sales tax certificate, which would shut the operation down."

Will Sommer at the Washington City Paper calculates that the cupcake shop, with branches in D.C., Bethesda, Boston, New York, Los Angeles and Atlanta, owes taxes worth 68,727 cupcakes.

See the lien here.

Update, 3:50 p.m.: Farial Awan, a spokesperson for Georgetown Cupcake, sent a brief statement to The Huffington Post:

Georgetown Cupcake has paid its taxes to the DC Office of Tax and Revenue in full, and the Office of Tax and Revenue has acknowledged receipt of payment. The misunderstanding regarding the lien has been resolved, the lien is in the process of being terminated, and we expect confirmation of the termination later today.

Asked what happened that constituted a "misunderstanding," Awan said that "Georgetown Cupcake does not have any further comments at this time."

The Washington Business Journal reports that the lien has been released as of Friday afternoon:

The D.C. tax office has released its lien against Georgetown Cupcake less than 24 hours after it was filed over nearly $190,000 in unpaid sales taxes.
The certificate of delinquent sales and use taxes was released as "paid and satisfied," according to documents filed Friday with the Recorder of Deeds. District of Columbia vs. Georgetown Cupcake LLC is no more.