Former prime minister Najib Razak’s second son, Mohd Nizar Najib, has agreed to pay the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) RM13.16 million in back taxes as ordered by the Shah Alam High Court.
Lawyer Wee Yeong Kang, who represented Nizar, 43, said his client had reached an agreement to settle the case with the IRB.
“The consent order should have been recorded before the Special Commissioner of Income Tax on May 27 but was rescheduled to August 4 following the movement control order,” he said when contacted by Bernama.
This, Wee said, was after the case management on Nizar’s appeal before Deputy Registrar of the Court of Appeal Mariam Hasanah Othman online, today.
The proceedings were also attended by IRB counsel Muhammad Nabil Abdul Halim.
On Nizar’s appeal, Wee said the court had set June 3 for case management to find out whether his client’s application to postpone the appeal hearing date scheduled for June 16 was allowed by the court while waiting for the consent order to be recorded.
Last year, the IRB had ordered Nizar to pay the back taxes from 2011 to 2017.
Nizar took the case to court as he wanted the IRB order tossed out on the grounds that the time bar had lapsed.
However, judicial commissioner Julie Lack Abdullah’s written judgment dated September 25, said the board’s claim against Nizar was not time-barred.
Julie said the plea of limitation based on Section 91(1) and (3) of the Income Tax Act by a taxpayer cannot be entertained by the high court.
Only the special commissioners of Income Tax have the power to do so.
She also dismissed Nizar’s claim, stating that it was settled law that a person who owed taxes must first pay up before appealing to the special commissioners.
Nizar was reported on October 27 as saying that he is appealing against the judgment at the Court of Appeal.
On July 6, his brother, Mohamad Nazifuddin, was ordered to pay the IRB RM37.6 million in back taxes between 2011 and 2017.
Najib on July 22 was slapped with an order to pay RM1.69 billion in unpaid taxes and is also appealing the decision. – TMI