THE Kuala Lumpur High Court today dismissed an application by lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah to file a counterclaim against the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) for its suit against him to recover RM9.4 million in alleged unpaid taxes over five years.

High Court judicial commissioner Roz Mawar Rozain dismissed the application on grounds Shafee was not entitled to file a counterclaim against the government.

“Shafee, in his submission, alleged that IRB had malicious intent in its suit against him.

“He claimed it was a collateral attack against him for defending former prime minister Najib Razak.

“Shafee’s counterclaim was against several government entities such as the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC).

“Those entities were not involved in this suit. Any dissatisfaction against them can be taken elsewhere,” she said in her judgment.

She said the Special Commissioners of Income Tax was the proper forum to raise the allegation that MACC and the AGC cooked up the malicious RM9.4 million tax calculation against him.

She also ordered Shafee to pay RM5,000 in costs, and fixed July 22 to hear the tax authority’s application to obtain summary judgment against Shafee to recover the amount.

Shafee filed the application in May 2021 saying, among other things, that the tax claim was an attack on him in his capacity as a lawyer for Najib and that he was considered an Umno lawyer even though he was not the party’s lawyer.

The board filed a suit against Shafee on May 6, 2021, claiming that the senior lawyer did not settle payments in tax arrears for five assessment years from 2011 to 2016, amounting to RM9.4 million in unpaid taxes.

Shafee is Najib’s lead counsel in several of the latter’s ongoing corruption charges involving 1Malaysia Development Bhd.

Lawyers Rajan Navaratnam and Muhammad Farhan Muhammad Shafee represented Shafee, while senior federal counsels Norzilah Abdul Hamid and Muhammad Faqrol Syazreen Mohd Ghaus appeared for the IRB. – April 13, 2023.