THE Inland Revenue Board (IRB) is targeting millionaires, who are among taxpayers with unpaid dues.

IRB warns of stringent enforcement this year with more auditing and investigations to be carried out, The Star reported today.

Its targets include cases, such as tax evasion by individuals and corporate bodies, illegal outflow of funds and acts of corruption.

Assisting the exercise is the Attorney-General Chambers’ National Revenue Recovery Enforcement Team (NRRET).

The team has gone after several tycoons, including Tan Sris and Datuks, ordering them to pay up unsettled taxes amounting to hundreds of millions of ringgit.

To date, the teams have already gone after several tycoons, including the Country Heights Holdings Bhd chairman and major shareholder Lee Kim Yew.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, Lee said IRB had frozen RM126 million of his fixed deposits over tax liabilities amounting to RM22.5 million owed by a subsidiary, Country Heights Sdn Bhd.

IRB CEO Sabin Samitah was quoted as saying the initiatives were meant to “facilitate compliance and make non-compliance difficult”.

On March 20, Prime Minister and Finance Minister Najib Razak told Parliament that uncollected income tax was estimated at RM6.8 billion as of December 31 last year. – May 11, 2017.