14. Before distributing the property under his control, every assignee, liquidator, administrator, testamentary executor or any other person who winds-up, administers or controls the property, business, succession or income of another person, with the exception of a trustee in bankruptcy, shall give the Minister written notice, by registered or certified letter, of his intention to make such distribution; in the case of a succession, the notice shall be given by means of the prescribed form and include, where required, the report or the inventory referred to in section 14.1.
On receiving the notice, the Minister may require that the person mentioned in the first paragraph file any document prescribed by regulation, the return referred to in section 1002 of the Taxation Act (chapter I-3) and any return or report that the person was required to send under any fiscal law; the Minister shall then, in writing, advise of the amount of the duties, interest and penalties exigible from the other person or which will become so within the 12 ensuing months under any fiscal law.
No person may make a distribution referred to in the first paragraph unless he has obtained a certificate from the Minister establishing that no amount is exigible, that sureties for the payment of any amount exigible have been accepted in accordance with section 10 or that a creditor has priority of rank over the claim of the Crown, in which case the certificate indicates the name of the creditor and the amount of his claim, and the distribution may be made only to that creditor, up to the amount of his claim.
Refusal by the Minister to issue the certificate or the fact of not following up the notice referred to in the first paragraph within 90 days of the mailing date is equivalent to a decision confirming a notice of assessment under section 1059 of the Taxation Act (chapter I-3), and sections 1066 to 1079 of the said Act apply, mutatis mutandis, to the decision.
Every distribution of property made without obtaining a certificate from the Minister shall make the offender personally liable for the amounts mentioned in the second paragraph up to the value of the property he has distributed.
In the case of the distribution of the assets of a corporation, all of the directors of such corporation, and its agent in the case of a corporation having its head office outside Québec, in office on the date on which the notice mentioned in the first paragraph is sent or on the date on which the distribution takes place shall be jointly and severally liable for the payment of such amounts if they have assented to such distribution or acquiesced or participated therein.
Sections 1005 to 1014, 1030, 1041, 1044, 1051 to 1062 and 1066 to 1079 of the Taxation Act apply, mutatis mutandis, to the fifth and sixth paragraphs.
Notwithstanding this section, in the case of a succession, property of a value not in excess of the amount prescribed by regulation may be distributed before the notice referred to in the first paragraph is transmitted to the Minister.
1972, c. 22, s. 14; 1978, c. 37, s. 71; 1980, c. 11, s. 66; 1983, c. 49, s. 35; 1986, c. 15, s. 211; 1987, c. 67, s. 202.