Najib faces bankruptcy, loss of Parliamentary seat on tax evasion

Malaysia’s ex-PM Najib Razak risks losing his Parliamentary seat and will be declared bankrupt if he fails to pay his taxes.
But Najib said he has always paid his taxes.

“I’ve never run away from paying taxes,” the former prime minister said in a post on Facebook in June.

The bill was sent to Najib weeks ago with claims by the Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri or Income Tax department saying Najib owes RM1.69 billion.

Najib’s lawyer says if the claims by the revenue department are allowed to go ahead Najib will be bankrupt. He will definitely lose his seat in Parliament altogether.

Hence, Najib will file an application for a stay of the proceedings of the Inland Revenue Board (IRB)’s lawsuit in which the taxmen are planning to for a Summary judgment thus by-passing the need for a full trial.

The next case management is on August 30.

The IRB on June 25 filed a suit against Najib seeking the payment of the hefty sum of RM1,692,872,924.83 with interest at 5% a year from the date of judgment.

The additional tax assessments on Najib’s income for the assessment year of 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 were RM116,173,374.12; RM320,929,932.31; RM891,573,465.46; RM119,144,655.51; RM16,879,500.03; RM643,445.21 and RM346,471.41 respectively.

Najib had 60 days to pay the taxes, together with the 10% increase but failed to do so.

In his FB post last month, Najib said the tax was imposed on what he received in his bank account.

“This included donations from the Saudi finance ministry and the Arab prince that were confirmed by a bank officer in my SRC trial.

“Money received as a donation usually never gets taxed.”

Twisting the facts, Najib showed his surprise the government had charged him in court for receiving “illegal funds” but the IRB, through its action, was indicating that what he received was legitimate income that he needs to pay tax on.

In the Facebook post, he said the largest amount in tax was in 2013 when his bank account received RM2.6 billion.

A bank officer had told a court hearing that the funds were returned to the sender four months later but he was still being taxed for that, he said. -/TISG