KUALA LUMPUR (July 6): The High Court has allowed an application for summary judgment to be entered in the Inland Revenue Board’s (IRB) suit to recover RM37.6 million in unpaid taxes from prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s son, Datuk Mohd Nazifuddin.

Justice Datuk Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim said the IRB had showed that the tax claim was clear and obvious, while Nazifuddin had failed to raise a just cause against the application.

A summary judgment is a judgment that is entered by court based on written submissions alone, minus a full trial and witness testimonies.

The IRB had via the government, filed the suit against Nazifuddin on July 24 last year for failure to pay RM37.6 million in unpaid taxes for the years 2011 to 2017, as stated in an assessment notice dated March 15, 2019. 

Zaidi said it had been proven that the assessment notice had been served to Nazifuddin and that he had even filed a tax appeal to reassess the amount with the IRB’s Special Commissioner of Income Tax.

The judge said that based on the facts, the case was clear and obvious.

The judge awarded IRB RM10,000 in costs.

Nazifuddin’s counsel Muhammad Farhan Shafee acknowledged that his client would now have to pay the RM37.6 million in accordance with the court order.

The lawyer said Nazifuddin may apply for a stay against the judgment at the appeals court.

“If the Court of Appeal allows the stay of application, then he won’t need to pay the RM37.6 million, pending the appeal. I would have to confer with my client first,” Farhan told reporters outside court, after the summary judgment hearing.

Farhan also said that Nazifuddin’s appeal to the Special Commissioner of Income Tax is still ongoing and that the case management for that is set for this Wednesday.

Senior revenue counsel Nor Hisham Ahmad and Al-Hummidallah Idrus appeared for the IRB.

According to IRB’s statement of claim, Nazifuddin’s failure to pay taxes for the seven years, within 30 days from the issuance of the assessment notice as stipulated under Section 103 of the Income Tax Act 1967, resulted in a 10% additional payment.

IRB said after Nazifuddin still failed to settle the amount within 60 days, another compounded 5% increase was imposed, bringing the total amount sought to RM37,644,810.70.

The amount comprises RM1,780,837.70 for assessment year 2011, RM6,604,851.81 (2012), RM6,279,834.41 (2013), RM4,360,278.87 (2014), RM2,074,950.76 (2015), RM2,623,943.76 (2016) and RM13,920,113.42 (2017).