IRB likely to finalise probe into 20 large companies this month

KUALA LUMPUR: The Inland Revenue Board’s (IRB) tax audit and investigations into 20 large enterprises involving RM1.4 billion in lost revenue due to tax avoidance and penalties, is most likely to be finalised by this month.
CEO Datuk Sabin Samitah said the government-linked and listed companies would receive an outstanding tax notice which must be paid within one month of the date of issue.
“If they don’t pay up, we will take the cases to court and (only then) can we reveal their names,” he told reporters after launching the “Integrated High Impact Exercise” yesterday.
Sabin said the 20 companies, which had been avoiding paying tax for up to two years, are from the telecommunications, plantations, real estate sectors and financial institutions, among others.
IRB is currently conducting a tax audit and investigations on 30 large enterprises overall with about RM2.2 billion in lost revenue due to tax avoidance and penalties.
Of this total, Sabin said 10 companies had received the outstanding tax notice and paid the tax avoidance and penalties of RM800 million in total.
It was reported that these large companies had turnovers ranging between hundreds of millions and billions of ringgit.
He added IRB aims to collect revenue of RM127 billion in 2017, including the RM2.2 billion in lost revenue and penalties, as well as RM36.26 million in tax arrears, derived from non-companies who received notices of travel bans and tax arrears in Kuala Lumpur. – Bernama