Raíces Brewing Company has served its last customers.
The West Colfax brewery — which specializes in Central and South American brews and culture — announced Wednesday it was closing its doors immediately.
In a letter to customers posted to its website, the brewery blamed its closure on outstanding taxes, which came to a head in December when the city threatened to seize its property and possessions to cover back taxes.
“Since 2024, Raíces Brewing Co. has faced a series of unexpected charges from the City of Denver’s Department of Taxation, related to a tax known as the Personal Property Tax,” the brewery's letter said. “This tax — which is not imposed in all cities and of which we had never been previously notified — taxes the furniture and equipment located inside a business.”
But city officials said personal property taxes were just a small fraction of the brewery's tax obligation. The bulk came from sales taxes, they said.
"Unfortunately, Raices Brewing Company owes the City and County of Denver $98,703.48 in unpaid sales taxes -- $65,640.55 of which is from back taxes the city has been working to collect from Raices. This is sales tax that businesses are obligated to collect from its customers on the city’s behalf," wrote Department of Finance spokesperson Laura Swartz.
The city issued a distraint warrant on Oct. 7 for the sales taxes.
Additionally, the business owes about $10,800 in business personal property taxes. Swartz pushed back on the idea that business personal property taxes are unusual or unexpected.
"Business personal property tax is not a City and County of Denver tax. This is a state tax, which every county in Colorado is required to administer and collect," Swartz wrote.
Every Colorado county collects business personal property taxes and they are “part of the broad-based property tax imposed by many local governments in Colorado,” according to a memo from legislative staff. Personal property taxes make up about 7 percent of the Denver property tax base.
After an earlier warning by the city in December, Raíces came to an agreement to pay a biweekly payment plan to resolve its debt. To help make up the money, it threw an event called CORAZÓN in March.
“However, the financial impact was considerable, severely affecting our cash flow during the low season — at a time when our industry is still recovering from the global economic challenges of recent years,” the letter from the business said.
Raíces also alleged that “certain city employees from this particular department” harassed the brewery.
The letter said that the city demanded an additional $30,000 in unpaid taxes in June and that the figure has grown to six figures “through the continued addition of numbers, interests and penalties.” Ultimately, Raíces determined that amount was insurmountable and suddenly closed its doors on Wednesday.
“It is clear that these newly calculated amounts are impossible to cover given the current economic reality of the business — a reality we have repeatedly and transparently communicated to the City,” the letter said.
Swartz pushed back on the idea that the city had treated the business unfairly.
"A warrant is only issued after repeated attempts to collect taxes from the business. It is a last resort that we have sought to avoid for nearly a year in this case. When businesses charge customers sales tax, but do not submit that sales tax to the city, the city is responsible for becoming involved," she wrote.
Raíces ended its letter thanking its customers and employees and apologizing to those with pending events.
Raíces owner Jose Beteta didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Denverite editor Andrew Kenney contributed to this article.
