CYBERJAYA: Some 100 prominent figures in the country are being flagged by the Inland Revenue Board (LHDN), particularly those who are possible tax evaders, says Datuk Mohd Nizom Sairi (pic).
“LHDN has taken up the recent call by the Prime Minister to go after the rich who evade taxes,” the LHDN chief executive officer told The Star during an exclusive interview.
Besides prominent figures, he said LHDN is also looking at those in the T20 income bracket to see if they have been complying with tax laws.
“We don’t want to send a message that it is not good to be rich because you will be targeted.
“This is not the message of the Prime Minister.
“His message is that if you are supposed to pay taxes, you must pay,” said Mohd Nizom.
He was responding to a question on the efforts by LHDN to go after rich tax evaders following recent calls to do so by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
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During his address on March 6 to mark LHDN’s 27th anniversary, Anwar encouraged LHDN to find ways to hunt down tax evaders even if they are his friends or supporters.
The Prime Minister said he wants these individuals, whether they are petty traders or the wealthy, to abide by the law and not evade paying income tax.
Anwar recounted the time when he held the Finance Minister post in the 1990s when it was difficult to collect taxes, especially from public figures, including VVIPs who refused to pay taxes.
Last June, LHDN said that some 31,598 entities consisting of individuals, businesses, companies and others had not declared their income, resulting in leakages in tax collections amounting to an estimated RM665mil.
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Meanwhile, although not divulging further details on the matter, Mohd Nizom said LHDN has a division which gathers information with regard to tax matters on a day-to-day basis.
“We have a dedicated division which is tasked with getting information from every possible or available source.
“This can be from public information or from other parties through legal means,” he said.
He said that there are two possible outcomes once the data gathered is fed through the Tax Audit Compliance System and further scrutinised and analysed by experts.
One of the follow-up actions, he said, would be carrying out an audit on individuals or companies including requesting further information on tax compliance.
“If we have enough information from several sources and are convinced that we have enough information to satisfy our suspicions, we will open an investigation paper,” he said in reference to the more drastic step.
He said this would be done if laws were suspected to have been broken by tax evaders.
The violations include undeclared taxes and undeclared second income as well as under-declaring income.
Mohd Nizom said LHDN is empowered to prosecute offenders without the need to refer the matter to the Attorney General’s Chambers.
“This makes the LHDN prosecution process faster but not any easier,” he said.
