PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal has fixed June 16 to hear appeals by former prime minister Najib Razak and his son Nizar over tax payments totalling about RM1.7 billion to the Inland Revenue Board (LHDN).
However, Nazifuddin’s (Najib’s son) appeal could not be fixed as the grounds of judgment by the High Court is not ready.
“Another case management has been fixed on Feb 4 to update on the status of the judgment,” lawyer Muhammad Farhan Shafee told FMT.
Case management was held today before deputy registrar Mohd Khairi Haron. Revenue counsel Muhammad Nabil Abdul Halim represented LHDN.
Najib has to pay RM1.69 billion in additional tax arrears, Nazifuddin has to pay RM37.6 million and Nizar, RM13.16 million.
Earlier this year, the High Court in Kuala Lumpur and Shah Alam allowed LHDN’s application for summary judgments to be entered against the three.
A summary judgment is where a court decides a case through arguments without hearing the testimony of witnesses in a trial.
The orders against Najib and Nazifuddin were issued by the Kuala Lumpur High Court on July 22 and July 6 respectively, while the order against Nizar by the Shah Alam High Court was made on Sept 25.
On June 25 last year, LHDN filed a suit against the Pekan MP seeking RM1.69 billion in unpaid taxes for the period between 2011 and 2017 with interest at 5% a year from the date of judgment.
Judge Ahmad Bache ruled that since the notice of assessment had been properly served on Najib pursuant to Section 103(2) of the Income Tax Act 1967, the tax payable under those additional assessments became due and payable to LHDN.
On July 24 last year, LHDN filed an action against Nazifuddin claiming he still had unpaid taxes for the assessment years 2011 to 2017, totalling RM37,644,810.73 as stated in the assessment notice dated March 15, 2019.
Judge Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim, in his oral decision, said LHDN had proven that its claim was clear and obvious while the defendant (Nazifuddin) had failed to show merits in his statement of defence.
LHDN filed the same action against Nizar seeking taxes amounting to RM13,159,821.94 for the assessment years 2011 to 2017.
Judicial commissioner of the High Court Julie Lack Abdullah ruled the issues raised by Nizar to be devoid of merit, baseless and that these did not constitute triable issues.