Who counts as bearing the duty to withhold and pay over national tax, so that the late-payment surcharge can reach that person?
General information · Not legal advice
Material to check
In a practice file we read the withholding returns to see who withheld and paid, the payment notice with the due date and amount unpaid, and the income records showing which tax the payer had to withhold and whether the payer was a United States military member or a state or local government body.
These are types of material to look for, not evidence already verified by PRO SE.
Where readings differ
One reading takes the provision's definition at its word: the duty to withhold and pay over national tax is the income or corporate tax withholding duty, a taxpayers' association's collection duty, or the service recipient's value-added tax withholding duty, and only a person in one of these positions faces the surcharge for paying late or underpaying by the statutory due date.
Another reading stresses that the exceptions do not all reach the same payers: the first two cover only a person required to withhold income tax under the Income Tax Act, while the third covers an income or corporate tax withholding person who is the State, a local government or an association of local governments, apart from the case the provision carves out.
Your judgment
When the payer was a body acting through a contractor or agent, what in the record shows whether the duty to withhold and pay over rested on that body itself?
PRO SE does not make this decision or keep a case record on this public site.When to reconsider
We look at this again if the provision is amended to add or remove a category of duty or an exception, or if a court decision decides whether an exception also reaches a person withholding corporate tax.