Pitt Meadows lawyer Eric John Becker has been fined $10,000 for professional misconduct involving his failure to remit payroll source deductions to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).
Becker admitted that while he was the sole director of his law corporation and in charge of the practice’s financial management, he collected employee source deductions in 2017, 2018 and 2019 but failed to remit them to the CRA in a timely way, or at all. As of October 2021, his practice owed the CRA approximately $270,004, including interest and penalties. He was aware that he owed the payroll source deductions and explained his practice was experiencing unanticipated cash flow demands that continued until the practice ceased operating.
The hearing panel accepted the penalty jointly proposed by the Law Society and Becker. The panel ordered Becker be fined $10,000 and pay $1,000 in costs to the Law Society.
The full decision can be read here.