I’ve always paid my taxes, says Najib

(FMT) – Najib Razak today said he had always paid his taxes.

“I’ve never run away from paying taxes,” the former prime minister said in a post on Facebook.

His comments come hours after theedgemarkets reported that court documents it sighted had confirmed its earlier claim that the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) had slapped Najib with a tax bill of RM1.69 billion in additional tax assessments from 2011 to 2017.

According to the daily, the original tax of about RM1.47 billion saw two hikes after “Najib failed to respond to an internal inquiry by the IRB” on this.

This led to a 10% hike (RM147 million) in April and another compounded 5% hike of RM80 million in May.

In his FB post, Najib said the tax was imposed on what he received in his bank account.

“This included donations from the Saudi finance ministry and the Arab prince that were confirmed by a bank officer in my SRC trial.

“Money received as a donation usually never gets taxed.”

Despite that, the Pakatan Harapan still wanted to tax and fine him, he added.

He said the largest amount in tax was in 2013 when his bank account received RM2.6 billion. A bank officer had told a court hearing that the funds were returned to the sender four months later but he was still being taxed for that, he said.

Najib said he was surprised that the government had charged him in court for receiving “illegal funds” but the IRB, through its action, was indicating that what he received was legitimate income that he needs to pay tax on.

He said he would have to hire more lawyers and spend years in court fighting the IRB.

Najib said the people will have to decide whether this was a case of the PH government misusing its powers for political reasons or whether it was being cruel in his case.