Overview. "Piercing the corporate veil" refers to a situation in which courts put aside limited liability and hold a corporation's shareholders or directors personally liable for the corporation's actions or debts. Veil piercing is most common in close corporations.

What does it mean to pierce a veil?

If a court pierces a company's corporate veil, the owners, shareholders, or members of a corporation or LLC can be held personally liable for corporate debts. This means creditors can go after the owners' home, bank account, investments, and other assets to satisfy the corporate debt.

What is the concept of piercing the veil of a corporation?

The doctrine of piercing the veil of corporate entity is used whenever a court finds that the corporate fiction is being used to defeat public convenience, justify wrong, protect fraud, or defend crime or w confuse legitimate issues, or that a corporation is the mere alter ego or business conduit of a person or where ...