A state agency has added used-car dealers with Southwest County connections to its list of sales-tax finks, while removing a handful of others since the list debuted last year.

The Board of Equalization says Mark Chelini and Andrew Uerling owe at least $508,000 in sales tax they racked up while running The Car Store on Clairemont Mesa Boulevard in San Diego. The pair recently appeared on the agency's list of 250 tax delinquents.

Those on the list are not necessarily the targets of criminal investigations. Some are already in negotiations over payment plans, according to the agency and debtors.

A number previously listed for the dealership is disconnected. Chelini and Uerling couldn't be reached for comment Monday.

Uerling's house in northwestern Murrieta is in foreclosure, according to the title company's database. The Board of Equalization lists Chelini's address as an office on Temecula Parkway that's now occupied by an unrelated business.

Other businesses and business owners owe as much as $18 million, according to the sales tax agency. Ninth on the list is Romeo Mamian Hambarsum, who owns a house in Temecula's Harveston development where his sister recently lived. Hambarsum is listed as owing $3.7 million in connection with a beauty-supply business.

Jan Weilert, a former owner of Temecula Valley RV LLC, is listed as owing $499,000. Weilert's defunct company isn't related to a similarly named business still in operation. Weilert was scheduled to stand trial earlier this month on charges of fraud and embezzlement, but the trial has been postponed, according to Riverside County Superior Court records.

California shoppers pay sales tax of 7.25 percent to 8.25 percent, depending on the city and county. Businesses collect the tax at the point of purchase, passing it on to the state monthly or quarterly. The state government hangs on to 6.25 percent of what's on the price tag, while cities and counties receive a 1 percent cut at the end of each calendar quarter. In Riverside and several other counties, an extra 0.5 percent funds road construction.

The agency first posted the delinquency list on its Web site early last year and updates it quarterly. Those now on the list owe nearly $300 million, including initial 10 percent late fees and interest with annual percentage rates of 7 percent to 12 percent, according to the agency.

Several local business owners have disappeared from the list, the apparent result of beginning to pay down the amounts they were said to owe. Those include a shopping-center owner on Newport Road and a Murrieta resident who ran a tanning salon in Hemet.

The Franchise Tax Board publishes a similar list of people and businesses that it says owe income tax. Both lists are the result of a bill by former Assemblyman Jerome Horton, D-Inglewood. The lists aim to "embarrass" the residents and business owners into paying up, Horton said in an interview last year.

Representatives of the agency say it negotiates with individual debtors, considering their circumstances, including ability to pay. It backs up its position, however, by placing liens on the debtors' personal and business assets. The negotiations can be difficult and frustrating, some debtors have said.

Contact staff writer Chris Bagley at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 5444, or cbagley@californian.com.