Canada: Ceasing To Be A Director – Directors’ Liability For Tax – Toronto Tax Lawyer Analysis
Under Canadian law, the directors of a corporation have a number of legal responsibilities and legal liabilities. One of them is how a corporation’s directors are held responsible for the payroll remittance and the withholding tax arrears according to the Canadian Income Tax Act. Through the Canadian Excise Tax Act, the corporation’s directors can be held liable for the GST/HST that a corporation may incur that go unpaid, and then expected to make payment on,any tax liability the corporation doesn’t cover from its own corporate coffers. This is a powerful encouragement the Canadian Revenue Agency can use to ensure corporate taxes are not left in arrears.
“Directors are jointly and severally liable for some of the tax debts of the corporation of which they are a director.”