PUTRAJAYA: Toh Puan Na'imah Abdul Khaled has been granted a postponement on her RM313.82 million income tax arrears payment to the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) pending her appeal at the Court of Appeal.
A three-member Court of Appeal bench led by Datuk Supan Lian gave the temporary order after allowing her appeals to overturn the lower court decision.
The judge in her ruling said the application filed by the wife of the former finance minister Tun Daim Zainuddin was meritorious.
Other members of the bench were Datuk Hashim Hamzah and Datuk Dr Choo Kah Sing.
Earlier, IRB senior federal counsel Mohamad Hafidz Ahmad argued that there were no special circumstances in this case to allow the temporary stay.
However, Na'imah lawyer S. Saravana Kumar countered that his client's bank accounts were frozen by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).
The lawyer said his client might go bankrupt if the stay is not granted.
On Oct 18, Shah Alam High Court dismissed Na'imah's application on grounds that there were no exceptional circumstances in this case.
Na'imah filed the application to preserve her status quo in her judicial review application against the IRB's claims that she allegedly had not settled assessment worth over RM313 million.
The 67-year-old applicant contended that special circumstances warranted a temporary stay. She asserted that without it, her judicial review application would be ineffective, the substantial tax amount raised by the respondent would pose a significant problem, and she would endure irreparable harm and hardship.
The IRB argued that the application for an interim stay amounted to an injunction preventing the respondent from performing its statutory duty under the Income Tax Act (ITA) 1967.
The respondent further submitted that the tax payable must be settled, even if the taxpayer has initiated court proceedings.
In her judicial review application on Aug. 13, Na'imah stated that the agency's decision to issue the contested Notice of Additional Assessment for 2018 was flawed due to illegality, impropriety, irrationality, abuse of process, and erroneous.
In her affidavit in support, Na'imah claimed the assessment raised against her was following an over RM700 million in alleged unreported income in 2018, which she said was based solely on baseless accusations.
She claimed the entire tax audit process appeared to be undertaken maliciously as the respondent failed to follow the proper tax audit guidelines and it is unlawful, invalid, null and void and/or in excess of authority.
She also claimed the respondent had failed to pay out to her RM3.807 billion in tax refunds for 2017 and prior.
In January, Na'imah and Daim, 86, were separately charged with the alleged failure to abide by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission's notice to declare their assets.
Daim had allegedly failed to declare his assets such as one bank account, seven luxury vehicles, 38 companies, and 25 properties at the MACC headquarters in Putrajaya on Dec 13, last year.