‘That’s A Lot of Tacos’ Defense Prevails in Tax Theft Case

What began in Seattle as potentially the largest sales tax suppression case in U.S. history against a Mexican restaurant owner ended with dismissal after a local tax attorney successfully deployed the “that’s a lot of tacos” defense.

The Washington Attorney General’s office in March accused Salvador Sahagun, owner of six Tacos Guaymas restaurants in metropolitan Seattle, of pocketing $5.6 million in sales tax using special “zapper” software that surreptitiously deletes or under-reports cash transactions run on point-of-sale computers or cash registers. A news release at the time called it potentially the largest such case in U.S. history.

Sahagun faced six ...