KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 4): The High Court has set Nov 16 to deliver its decision on Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir's ongoing legal challenge over RM5 million in additional tax assessments and penalties.
High Court judge Datuk Azizan Arshad set the date after hearing submissions from both parties on Tuesday.
This is in relation to the Parti Pejuang Tanah Air (Pejuang) chief’s judicial review to quash the additional assessment notices for 2017 until 2019.
The amount in dispute are an additional assessment of RM2,558,875.90 for 2017; RM2,445,004.91 for 2018; and RM16,826.37 for 2019.
The High Court had granted permission to hear the full merits of the case in January last year. A temporary stay from paying the sum had also been granted.
During the hearing on Tuesday, Mukhriz’s counsel Nizamuddin Hamid told the court that the additional assessment for 2019 has been paid up.
Nizamuddin argued that the High Court — as opposed to the Special Commissioners of Income Tax (SCIT) — was the avenue to hear the case, as they were questioning the legality of the notices.
The lawyer impressed on the court that the notices were illegal as they were issued after the five-year limitation period as set in law.
Furthermore, he added even if the notices had been issued outside of time, the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) ought to have cited the specific grounds, whether fraud, wilful default or negligence. This was not done in this case.
"It is additional assessments without invoking any of the three reasons. That is illegal. If the reason was given, we would have taken this to the SCIT," he argued.
Nizamuddin said that they only learnt that the extension of time was on the grounds of negligence after the legal challenge had been mounted in court.
Revenue Counsel Marina Ibrahim, appearing for the IRB, argued that the notice was given "out of time" because of extensions given for Mukhriz to sort out his affairs in relation to IRB's request for information.
"At that material time, extension of time was given to prepare the documents, and it is not fair to use that against the respondents," she said.
She argued that the SCIT was the right tribunal to hear this matter because it has the jurisdiction to hear issues of limitation.
She added that this case is still fact-based, and the court can't hear and decide on tax matters which are fact-based.
Previously, in July last year, the court had removed Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and the federal government as respondents in this judicial review as the issues only concerned the IRB.