The team will focus on goldsmiths, licensed moneylenders, lawyers, sportsmen and the medical sector, including pharmacies, nurses and doctors. — AFP pic

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 16 — The Inland Revenue Board (IRB) has set up a special enforcement team called, Task Force Two Billion, for the coming taxation year.

The team will focus on goldsmiths, licensed moneylenders, lawyers, sportsmen and the medical sector, including pharmacies, nurses and doctors, the board’s new chief executive officer, Datuk Sabin Samitah, said at launch yesterday.

“Based on our investigations, we have found that many of these people do not fully declare their taxes.

“We call the operation Task Force Two Billion because we intend to collect RM2 billion taxes from them.”

Sabin said 272 investigators and tax officers had been trained for the operation.

“We have a system which will be able to detect how much an individual is making and will use it to track the amount they are supposed to pay,” he said.

He said the IRB decided to create the task force as the current auditing system took longer to identify tax defaulters.

“This task force will help us identify defaulters in a much shorter time as we have a specialised investigative team,” he said.

Sabin said the board planned to collect about RM127 billion in taxes for 2016, which is about RM6 billion more than in 2015.

The board had also caught 1,063 tax evaders this year who owed RM755.44 million.

He said defaulters could pay their taxes in instalments if the amounts were too big to pay in one lump sum.

Sabin also revealed the board was in discussion with Bank Negara to automatically list tax defaulters under the Central Credit Reference Information System (CCRIS).

“It is still at the initial stage of discussion but we hope to see this through,” he said, adding that this was not a harsh punishment.

Reacting to the formation of the task force, former Malaysian Bar president K. Ragunath disagreed that many lawyers evaded paying taxes.

He believed that lawyers registered under the Malaysian Bar regularly paid their taxes.

“This is an obligation of income earners to declare their income and pay taxes. I believe there are not many lawyers who do not pay their taxes,” he said.

However, he said it was a good move to set up the task force as it would be able to collect taxes from defaulters more efficiently.

Malaysian Medical Association president Dr John Chew disagreed with IRB’s plan to list defaulters under CCRIS.

“As long as people are not proven guilty in court, their names should not be listed under that system as it will hold them back from leading a normal life,” he said.

“If their names are blacklisted, they will not be able to take loans. This is brutal punishment. IRB cannot be judge, jury and executioner.”