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PETALING JAYA: Najib Razak’s two sons, who were slapped with a total tax bill of RM 50.8 million by the Inland Revenue Board (LHDN), have filed separate appeals against Superior Court orders for sentencing summary against them.
LHDN won its bids to proceed to recover RM37.6 million of back taxes from Mohd Nazifuddin, as well as RM13.2 million of back taxes from Mohd Nizar from the High Courts of Kuala Lumpur and Shah Alam, respectively.
Nazifuddin works as an entrepreneur while Nizar is a company director.
LHDN sought to recover the siblings’ tax arrears for the period 2011 to 2018.
The brothers’ lawyer, Muhammad Farhan Shafee, said the Appeals Court set December 16 as a subpoena for their appeals along with Najib’s.
The former prime minister had also filed an appeal against the High Court decision that allowed LHDN to recover the 1.69 billion ringgit in arrears from him through a summary judgment.
Farhan added that the court clerk arranged the three cases to be heard together as “the issues are the same.”
In the Nazifuddin case, the Kuala Lumpur High Court accepted the offer of summary judgment in favor of LHDN as the businessman did not present a just cause against the request.
Summary judgment is a procedure in which the court decides on a case, through written submissions, without a full trial and without calling witnesses.
In the case of Najib RM1.69 billion, the court held that under the Income Tax Law, it does not have the power to receive any petition from people who wanted to dispute the LHDN assessment against them.
In its ruling, the court said that once LHDN has served Najib with the appraisal notice, the court has no power to consider a guilty plea on the amount the government is trying to recover on the grounds that it is excessive or improperly accessed. .
The appropriate forum to challenge the appraisal is before the Special Income Tax Commissioners.
Najib and Nazifuddin have submitted their LHDN assessments to the tax court.
