Family Says Audit Error Destroyed Their Business, Life

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (Fox 8 News) - A once-thriving family business is on the verge of shutting down, and its owners are virtually broke, after spending years fighting the state Department of Revenue over an audit they believe was full of errors.

In 2005, Tammy Webster and her husband were living their dream. They owned a successful marketing firm called Webster Design Group, which today is known as High Synergy.

At the time, Webster Design Group was named one of the fastest growing Triad businesses.

"It went very well. We picked up Levi's, Walmart, Warner Bros. Consumer Products ... some nice accounts," Webster said Monday.

But all of that changed when, in 2005, the N.C. Department of Revenue sent a letter saying the company was being audited. The audit ruled the small business owed $600,000 in taxes.