(Image: Single Shot)
The challenges of Seattle’s food and drink industry are ranging far beyond high Capitol Hill rents and labor costs this summer for one Summit Ave restaurant.
Federal prosecutors say the owner of Capitol Hill’s Single Shot Kitchen and Saloon did not pay the IRS more than $1 million in employee taxes over a ten-year period beginning with the restaurant’s 2014 debut on Summit.
Federal prosecutors have charged Rory McCormick with one count of Willful Failure to Pay Over Tax in the case that includes allegations of $1,027,362 in unpaid employee taxes and another $418,979 in employer-side payroll taxes owed to the IRS.
In the case filed last week in the U.S. District Court, Western District of Washington, prosecutors say McCormick withheld taxes from employee paychecks but failed to pay over the withheld funds to the IRS “for the 36 quarters over this period.”
McCormick is alleged to have skipped quarterly filings that would have flagged the non-payments.
Prosecutors say McCormick did not file quarterly employment tax returns during the 10-year period. Filing the form reports to the IRS exact dollar figures for employee wages and the tax withheld for that quarter. If an owner files without attaching payment, the IRS system automatically generates an immediate assessment and balance-due notice.
The scale of the allegations stack up some large financial totals. Working from the alleged unpaid tax amounts, the case covers somewhere around $5.5 million in total wages. Under typical margins, that makes Single Shot somewhere around a $2 million a year business.
Employees may face some headaches but are not on the hook. Once an employer withholds federal income tax and FICA (from a worker’s paycheck, the employee is legally credited for paying those taxes and not required to pay those withheld taxes back out of their own pockets.
The prosecution is the latest ripping open of books for a Capitol Hill restaurant in recent months. CHS reported here in June on the agreement with unionized workers for the restaurant group behind Capitol Hill steakhouse Jeffry’s that included management making its financials public — a loss of $780,000 in 2025 on some $17 million in gross sales.
The Single Shot case does not include charges related to two other McCormick restaurants in Seattle. He operates Re:Public and El Grito Taqueria in partnerships. At Single Shot, the restaurant veteran is the sole registered agent, according to state filings.
McCormick opened Single Shot on Summit in 2014, replacing a former photography gallery and helping grow a cluster of neighborhood food and drink on the block. CHS visited with Single Shot in 2024 to mark its 10th anniversary neighboring The original Top Pot Doughnuts, Summit Public House, Cornelly, and Sol Liquor Lounge.
“There’s just a different level of experience when you go to more of an independent restaurant. It’s not going to be as cookie cutter as what some people might expect, and you’re supporting your community,” McCormick said then. “It serves and gives a lot of people jobs within the neighborhood and most of my employees live on Capitol Hill and are able to walk to work. They’re part of the neighborhood that makes Capitol Hill as cool as it is.”
A conviction under 26 U.S.C. § 7202 Willful Failure to Collect or Pay Over Tax is classified as a federal felony punishable by up to five years in prison, criminal fines, and statutory penalties. In convictions, jail time is common and the IRS pretty much always gets its money.
McCormick is slated for an arraignment and plea hearing next week.
Single Shot remains open at 611 Summit Ave E.
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