Publishing business files for bankruptcy

A Spokane Valley publishing business has filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition but will continue producing a shopper and a bimonthly magazine, its president said Wednesday.

Vincent E. Bozzi, owner and president of Northwest Best Direct Inc., said the company will continue to operate. In fact, the next issue of its magazine, Spokane Coeur d’Alene Living, will be the largest in its five-year history, he said.

In filing the petition, Bozzi listed debts exceeding $340,000. The largest creditors are the Internal Revenue Service, which is listed in documents as owed $159,000 in past-due taxes, and Banner Bank, which has a secured loan of $80,000 to Bozzi.

Northwest Best Direct has about 12 employees at its Spokane Valley office, Bozzi said.

The bankruptcy allows Bozzi to forestall efforts by the IRS to place liens on his accounts receivable, said Spokane attorney Donald Hackney, who filed the petition on behalf of Northwest Best Direct.

The taxes owed involve employee withholding taxes that Bozzi didn’t pay between 2000 and 2003, according to bankruptcy court filings. Bozzi said the actual amount that he owes to the IRS is closer to $107,000. But Hackney said it might be necessary to hire accountants to sort out the true amount Bozzi owes, including interest and penalties dating back to 2000.

The bankruptcy doesn’t erase the taxes due. It essentially stops the interest and penalties the company would continue to amass had the petition not been filed, said Hackney. “That’s the only reason for the filing. The company actually was profitable in 2004,” he added.

The next issue of Spokane Coeur d’Alene living will have 132 pages, Bozzi said. The lifestyle magazine comes out six times a year.

Bozzi also publishes Shopper’s Choice, a publication launched last year that’s mailed to middle-income residents and distributed free inside area supermarkets. It comes out every six weeks.

Another publication, Inland Catalyst, is published by Bozzi through a separate partnership with Spokane businessman Greg Green. Bozzi said the bankruptcy has no impact on that magazine.