June 16 hearing for Shafee’s bid to stay suit over tax arrears

 

Among the grounds cited by Muhammad Shafee Abdullah for his stay application was that he had filed a notice appealing against the tax assessment in 2019.

KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court here has set June 16 to hear an application by lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah for a stay of proceedings of a suit filed against him by the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) for payment of RM9.41 million in income tax arrears pending the disposal of his appeal to the Special Commissioners of Income Tax.

His lawyer, Wee Yeong Kang, told reporters after the online case management today that the hearing would be before judicial commissioner Mohd Arief Emran Arifin at 3.30pm.

The case management was held before senior assistant registrar Nurul Izzah Hasan Basri. It was also attended by Ezmeer Zulkarnaen Asnizar, who represented the IRB.

Shafee, 69, filed the application on Nov 3 last year. Among other things, it sought an order for the proceedings to be temporarily suspended pending the outcome of an application before the Federal Court filed by former prime minister Najib Razak and his son, Mohd Nazifuddin, regarding the payment of income tax, amounting to RM1.69 billion and RM37.6 million, respectively.

Among the grounds cited by Shafee were that he had filed a notice of appeal against the notices on additional assessment for the years 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2016, to the IRB on June 27, 2019, and special circumstances that warrant the stay.

On Sept 27 last year, the IRB applied for its suit against Shafee to be decided through summary judgment, on the grounds that the defendant had failed to pay the tax arrears amounting to RM9,414,708.32 within the stipulated time.

The IRB filed the suit against Shafee on May 6 last year, seeking payment amounting to RM9.41 million in tax arrears for five assessment years.

Shafee is the lawyer representing Najib in the case involving the misappropriation of SRC International Sdn Bhd and 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) funds.

He is also facing two charges of receiving RM9.5 million in proceeds from unlawful activities from Najib, and two charges of making false declarations to the IRB. - FMT