The Inland Revenue Board (IRB) has withdrawn its appeal, which was filed at the Court of Appeal, over a suit filed against Nooryana Najwa, the daughter of former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, to recover RM10.3 million in unpaid income tax.
Nooryana Najwa’s lawyer Wee Yeong Kang, when contacted, said the IRB filed its notice of discontinuance of the appeal last Monday.
“Our client had settled her tax case after her tax agent and IRB went through her case,” he said.
Wee said the IRB’s appeal was scheduled to be heard today.
The IRB is appealing against the Aug 26, 2020, decision of the Shah Alam High Court in dismissing its application to obtain a summary judgment against Nooryana Najwa to recover RM10.3 million in unpaid income tax.
On July 24, 2019, the Malaysian government, through IRB, filed a writ of summons in the High Court naming Noorana Najwa as the defendant.
According to the IRB’s statement of claim, Nooryana Najwa failed to submit the Individual Income Tax Return Forms to the IRB under Section 77 of the Income Tax Act 1967 for the assessment year from 2011 to 2017.
The IRB contended she had not paid the amount of income tax, including the increase, totalling RM10,335,292.36.
Meanwhile, Nooryana said she was thankful that the legal tussle between her and the IRB since two years ago finally ended today.
In her Instagram post, she said the IRB had agreed that the dowry and financial support from her husband as well as the house her in-laws purchased for them using funds from abroad were not taxable.
“I won the case against LHDN at the High Court level back in August 2020.
“Alhamdulillah…today, LHDN formally withdrew their appeal of my tax case.
“We had already settled my tax issues after my tax agents and IRB went through my case and they finally agreed that ‘wang hantaran’ (dowry), ‘nafkah’ (financial support) my husband and a house fully purchased by my in-laws using funds from abroad are not taxable.
“It never was and made no sense,” she said.
Nooryana also accused the former Pakatan Harapan government of trying to persecute members of Najib’s family through the IRB.
“Just like my father’s nonsensical RM1.7 billion tax case, the then Pakatan Harapan government’s sole objective was to persecute my family using LHDN (IRB) even if it meant breaking all laws and rules, relying on abusing the ‘pay first, talk later’ clause,” she said.
Najib’s income tax case is now at the Federal Court level after he failed to dismiss the High Court’s decision in allowing IRB’s summary judgement to recover RM1.69 billion in taxes at the Court of Appeal on Sept 9 last year.