KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court here yesterday set Jan 20 next year to hear the application by the Australian Tax Office (ATO) and two others to strike out the suit filed against them by a Malaysian timber industrialist, Hii Yii Ann, for imposing an A$49,774,128.20 tax on him, over his income earned outside Australia.
Counsel Datuk D P Naban representing ATO, as well as its Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner of Taxation, said the application was filed based on the sovereign immunity.
He said this to the media after the case was mentioned before Judge S Nantha Balan in chambers yesterday in the presence of counsel Mohd Rizal Yaakub representing Hii.
Hii, 56, filed an originating summons via Messrs Alvin John & Partners at the High Court Registry here on July 22, seeking a declaration that ATO’s decision on Dec 20, 2013, that he had abandoned his Malaysian domicile in favour of Australia is invalid.
He is also seeking a declaration that between 2001 to 2009, he was a tax resident of Malaysia, and that the defendants had failed and/or neglected and/or breached the spirit and intent of the Dual Tax Agreement executed between Australia and Malaysia in 1980.
The man is also seeking costs and other relief deemed fit by the court. — Bernama