# Can the CRA come after you (director) 2 years after a corporation is dissolved?



## jayk (May 5, 2016)

Hello I had opened a corporation in 2010, and ended up with a serious medical situation and a divorce and a subsequent bankruptcy in 2012. The company had a few transactions into 2011 and then was inactive. When I was contacted by the CRA in 2014 and they asked if the corporation was still active I informed them that I thought everything had been resolved by my bankruptcy trustee and I received a notice of confirmation of dissolution in March 2014. 

I was just contacted again by the CRA on April 27, 2016 and they claim I owe HST from 2010. When I asked how they arrived at the $2500 number they said it was an approximation based on my 2009 personal tax NOA! It has been over 2 years since the company was dissolved and over 6 years in all and I have been through a lot and do not even have any of the old documents. Can the CRA do this to me and what can I do to stop this? Thank you.


----------



## twa2w (Mar 5, 2016)

Well they can, and obviously they did. 
Did you not file any corporate tax returns, HST returns?
This is a requirement and subsequent disolution of the company does not relieve you of this obligation. It just took cra a while to catch up to you.
You also have an obligation to keep corporate tax records for a certain period.
I am not an expert but would contact CRA, explain company dissolved, you were bankrupt and ask for an extention to get your records together and contact trustee. 
Then contact trustee to see what if anything he did with the corporation ie file returns. If you had an accountant for the company, they should have some records.
If not then contact the bank your company dealt with and ask for copies of statements and images of cheques. If there are a lot it will cost you as the bankwill not do this for free.
This will give you an idea of deposits( income) and your expenses(cheques) and I assume your personal tax returns would show any personal income you withdrew from company and declared.
From these records you may be able to piece something together for HST and income tax for the years the company was active. 
You should slso get copies of focs showing Corp disolution.

You can then approach CRA and at least have a discussion about what is reasonable.

Warning. If they came after you for 2010, they may be in the process of doing the same for 2011 and maybe 2012 as well.

Good luck.


----------



## Just a Guy (Mar 27, 2012)

Did you declare personal bankruptcy, corporate bankruptcy or both? A corporation is a legal entity unto itself, thus not covered by your personal bankruptcy. It lives on as if it was a different person.

Did you file tax returns for the corporation? If not, you should have, it's a seperate entity. Do you have an accountant? If not, you should probably get one. CRA can and will sometimes be a bully, but that doesn't mean they are right. Also, you need to shut down the corporation properly, filing tax returns (even if the are zero) for each year until you inform CRA you shut down then, once they give you permission to shut down, you'll need to file the final year tax return (also a zero return). 

Not only that, but since you have an gst/hst number, you also have to file all those returns (also zero) in the same way as for CRA, and request them to shut you down as well...then file one more year.

I had a company from an old partnership which I inherited after it went dormant...took months of useless paperwork to shut it down properly. A few years later, I discovered that CRA (which shut down the company) didn't tell the gst/hst people, so I had to file several more years of useless paperwork to get that closed down.


----------



## fretwire (Apr 13, 2016)

Death and taxes my friend. That saying didn't come out of nowhere.

If you billed HST in 2010 through the company and didn't send the government their cut you still owe it. You can call them to (very, very) politely explain the situation and ask for help and they may cut you a break. You should be able to get the necessary information from the trustee or dig through old records but at the end of the day if you billed the HST you owe the taxes.

You could also get a lawyer to help but that's more likely to result in being billed a few hundred bucks at a time (plus 25 cents a copy, of course) to reduce the taxes, then you'll probably be out much more than 2500 even if you "win".


----------

