Can I still pay myself dividends if my corporation is a personal services business?

Yes, a corporation classified as a personal services business can still legally pay dividends to its shareholder out of its after-tax income, PSB status doesn't prohibit paying dividends the way it restricts expense deductions and the small business rate. The practical problem is less about whether dividends are allowed and more about how much after-tax money is actually left to distribute once PSB status applies.

Because a PSB pays corporate tax at a materially less favourable rate and can only deduct a narrow list of expenses, there's simply less income left after tax to pay out as dividends compared to a genuine active business earning the same revenue. The overall combined tax result, once you account for both the corporate tax paid and the personal tax on dividends received, tends to be considerably less efficient for a PSB than it would be for either a genuine active business paying dividends or an ordinary employee being paid salary directly.

So while dividends remain technically available, PSB status generally undermines the whole reason many people incorporate in the first place, the ability to use dividends as a tax-efficient way to extract corporate income, which is worth understanding before assuming incorporation and dividend payments automatically deliver the usual benefits.