Arizona Department of Revenue v. Action Marine, Inc.

¶32 The Court today holds that A.R.S. § 42-5028 imposes personal liability on officers and directors of a corporation that fails to remit additional charges collected from customers to cover corporate liability for the transaction privilege tax (“TPT”). This is a plausible reading of the statutory scheme and has much to commend it as a matter of public policy.

¶33 This interpretation, however, is not inexorably compelled by the text of the relevant statutes. Indeed, three judges of the court of appeals and an experienced Arizona bankruptcy judge have arrived at precisely the opposite…