Marani Brands Inc. (MRIB)

[Matthew Berg]

Payroll taxes are a non-issue? You have obviously never operated a company and dealt with this issue, let alone a California company. FTB is brutal. The taxes are brutal. 941 prosecution is brutal. The rules they go by are generally unregulated and they do pretty much anything they want. There are no appeals and there are no settlements without bankruptcy. You are seriously underestimating this liability. Hey, if it was income taxes, no biggie. Those are easy to put off and hide from for a while and then settle at a steep discount with a decent tax attorney.

But these mandatory payments which they have a fiduciary responsibility to collect and hand over to the state total over 10% of their entire payables/liabilities. And if what you said is true and that they have a small payroll, that number is huge and must have been on the books for a long time (at least since 2009). I have serious doubts that they are including penalties and interest in their liability. That's why you need audited financials. The company can leave those penalties and interest out on the basis that they believe they do not owe the taxes but a CPA or certified firm would not.