Are company directors personally liable for VAT arrears?

The tax authorities (Belastingdienst) held the director of Work BV personally liable. The company had payroll tax and VAT (BTW) debts. However, the Supreme Court partially doubted the correctness of this decision.

Dutch law requires you to inform the tax authorities if you cannot pay any tax debts. The requirements apply to companies (BV). The directors of Work BV were held accountable for failure to comply with precisely this requirement.

The country's Supreme Court decided that Belastingdienst's actions regarding payroll taxes were completely correct. However, the Supreme Court had doubts regarding the VAT debt, so the question was sent to the European Court regarding the liability of the BV directors for VAT debts. The fact is that current legislation allows the director to avoid liability if the requirement to notify the tax authorities of the inability to pay was not due to his fault (force majeure, etc.). But in reality, the director has no way to prove his innocence.

Now we just have to wait for clarification from the European Court. However, it is better not to allow the issue of directors' liability to arise at all. 

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