HAVING slapped an exorbitant tax arrears on former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his children, the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) is now hot on the heels of the former’s senior counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah for a similar offence.
Shafee is alleged to have owed the tax agency RM9.41 mil, for the years 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2016.
In its lawsuit filed at the Kuala Lumpur High Court on May 6, the IRB alleged that the arrears over the five year-year period amounted to 2011 (RM434,326.37), 2012 (RM978,854.11), 2013 (RM3.58 mil), 2014 (RM1.73 mil) and 2016 (RM1.82 mil).
The RM9.41 mil included additional late payment penalty incurred by Shafee’s failure to settle the outstanding tax arrears between 2011 and 2016.
The IRB alleged in its statement of claim that it had sent additional assessment notices for the five years to the lawyer’s Bukit Tunku (Kuala Lumpur) address between May 27 and May 30, 2019.
According to the Income Tax Act, if the balance of tax payable is not paid by the due date, a penalty of 10% will be imposed on the outstanding amount. Thereafter, if the tax payable and penalty is still outstanding within 60 days from the due date, an additional penalty of 5% will be imposed on the tax and penalty outstanding.
For the record, Najib and his two children – Datuk Mohd Nizar Najib and Datuk Mohd Nazifuddin Najib – are appealing against the High Court’s summary judgements for IRB to recover from them a combined RM1.74 bil in income tax arrears from 2011 to 2017.
In fact, court documents sighted by theedgemarkets.com last April showed that a bankruptcy notice has been issued by the High Court to the former premier on Feb 4 following a request by the IRB on the same date.
Besides the tax arrears issue, Shafee also faces two charges of giving false statements to IRB for which he had claimed trial. Additionally, he has also been slapped with two counts of money laundering for accepting cheques worth RM4.3 mil on Sept 13, 2013, and another cheque for RM5.2 mil on Feb 17, 2014 from Najib.
His trial has yet to commence. – May 17, 2021
