KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 28): Maxis Bhd's wholly-owned subsidiary Maxis Broadband Sdn Bhd has been slapped with an additional tax demand amounting to RM107 million from the Inland Revenue Board.

In a bourse filing on Monday (Feb 28), Maxis said the notice of additional assessment is for the year of assessment 2020.

The 2022 notice was raised "mainly pursuant to the disallowance of Maxis Broadband's deduction of interest expenses incurred during the said year of assessment and hence, similar in nature with the notices received in the past years in respect of years of assessment 2016 up till 2019", it added.

Based on legal advice obtained, Maxis Broadband will initiate legal proceedings to challenge the basis and validity of the disputed 2022 notice and the penalty imposed.

"There will not be any imminent financial effects on the Maxis Group pending the outcome of the legal proceedings. The company will provide updates from time to time of any material development to this matter," said Maxis.

Recall that on March 31, 2021, Maxis Broadband was served with additional assessment notice of RM230 million for years of assessment 2018 and 2019. Before that, on Nov 20, 2020, Maxis Broadband was also slapped with a RM140 million tax bill for the years of assessment 2016 and 2017.

These brought the total additional assessment across the five years from 2016 to 2020 to RM477 million, which Maxis is bringing to court.

In February 2021, the company said the High Court had given an interim stay of the enforcement of the RM140 million notice for 2016-2017 following instructions for the filing of submissions.

Shares of Maxis are currently trading near their multi-year low. The counter closed up four sen or 1.01% at RM4.02 on Monday, giving it a market capitalisation of RM31.46 billion.