LIABRA Holds Sales Tax Audit and State of The Industry Town Hall Meeting Feb. 18 The Long Island Auto Body Repairmen’s Association (LIABRA) held their February member meeting on Tuesday, February 18, 2014 at 8pm. The meeting will be held at Greg & Bill’s Auto Collision, located at 3020 Route 112 in Medford, NY 11763 and will be comprised of two main topics. LIABRA gave an important seminar on sales tax audits of auto body shops, describing what the NYS Department of Taxation and Finance will be looking for while doing sales tax audits on collision repair facilities. They also discussed how shops are being targeted, why the assessments
are so high and what records the Taxation Department will be seeking when they conduct audits. The meeting also included LIABRA’s Annual State of the Industry Town Hall Meeting. Topics include rate suppression, parts procurement and outside interference in the collision repair industry. LIABRA leaders will discuss why the industry is allowing these issues to continue and teach attendees how to say ‘no’ to interference in their businesses. Food and refreshments for the meeting were provided by Enterprise Rent-A-Car. See www.liabra.com.
Owner of Great Neck Auto Body Shops Pleads Guilty to Failing to Pay $335K in Taxes
of $335,000 to the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance (NYSDTF) – half today and the other half upon sentencing before Judge Susan Kluewer on May 22. “When a company or an individual fails to remit taxes, it’s a crime against all New Yorkers,” DA Rice said. “By pocketing this money, Mr. Caraccia took funding away from services that any resident of Long Island or beyond could rely upon. I’m glad we were able to restore this money to the people of New York and will continue to aggressively prosecute crimes against the taxpayer.” See Tax Larceny, Page 8
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Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice said that the Queens owner of two Great Neck auto body repair shops pleaded guilty today to larceny charges stemming from failure to pay $335,000 in taxes to New York State. Joseph Caraccia, 65, of Whitestone, pleaded guilty today to Petit Larceny (a class A misdemeanor). His two Great Neck companies, Auto Bodyworks of 275 East Shore Road and Auto Body Works II of 300 East Shore Road, each pleaded guilty to the top count of Grand Larceny in the 2nd Degree (a C felony). Caraccia and his companies have agreed to pay restitution in the amount
VOL. 3 ISSUE 12 MARCH 2014
OEM Collision Repair Roundtable Launches Consumer-Oriented Site: Crashrepairinfo.com by Ed Attanasio
OEM Collision Repair Roundtable Chairman Gary Ledoux worked on the development team that created crashrepairinfo.com
Representatives from 10 of the world’s largest carmakers got together to create, design and launch a web site to get the message out there and provide useful information on an ongoing basis to consumers nationwide. The main message at crashre-
pairinfo.com, a site recently launched by the OEM Collision Repair Roundtable earlier this year at January’s Collision Industry Conference (CIC) planning meeting in Palm Springs, CA, is simple—Consumer awareness is paramount and knowledge is crucial to the collision repair process. OEM Collision Repair Roundtable Chairman Gary Ledoux, who is also the assistant national manager of wholesale parts marketing at Honda, said that crashrepairinfo.com is meant to help vehicle owners to make educated decisions when their cars are See Crashrepairinfo.com, Page 18
Polar Vortex Continues to Plague Southern States in Late January and Early February by Chasidy Rae Sisk
As predicted, the polar vortex that wrought havoc at the beginning of the year strengthened and continued moving southward in late January, resulting in more unusually low temperatures and icy winds. This winter storm system impacted most of the country with 34 states being under some sort of winter weather warning or advisory during the last week of the month. While residents in the northern states are more accustomed to harsh winter precipitation, areas in the south were left floundering at the unusual phenomenon of snow and ice that poured down in states that generally enjoy much milder winters. This abnormal weather system raised a lot of concern and caused significant damage in many southern metropolitan areas, particularly in Atlanta, GA, and Birmingham, AL, where the combination of weather and traffic congestion contributed to a surge of accidents. Beginning on Tuesday, January 28 and continuing well into the next day, snow and ice accumulating in the southeast brought Atlanta to a screech-
ing halt. While the city normally averages a low temperature of 28 degrees and a high of 49 degrees in January, temperatures plummeted into the teens during the last week of January with up
to three inches of snow in some places. Slick conditions created by ice and sleet led to accidents which, in turn, caused an increase in traffic delays. Many cars were left abandoned on the roads and highways after running out of gas due to sitting in the long-standing traffic, while other vehicles were parked in lots as their owners attempted to wait out the storm—in fact, many people are comparing the dismal images to scenes from the first season of TV’s “The Walking Dead!” Glenn Grey, owner of Grey’s Auto Collision in Hiram, GA, and his wife experienced the effects of the See Polar Vortex Continues, Page 52