The Inland Revenue Board (IRB) will target all categories of professional in a bid to detect tax evaders, its chief executive officer Mohd Shukor Mahfar said today.

It hopes to get an additional collection of RM1 billion by its initiative on voluntary disclosure of penalty imposition, which begins in March followed by a doubling-up of enforcement efforts, he said.

“As far as we are concerned, we are targeting all sorts of professionals. So you just name any professional,” he said when met at a taxation seminar in Putrajaya jointly organised with the Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF).

He was asked to confirm a Nanyang Siang Pau report which quoted sources as saying that the IRB had trained its guns on three professionals namely lawyers, doctors and artistes.

“Last year, it went viral on social media (that we will be after) medical practitioners. Actually, every professional is on our radar,” he said.

He added that the board would concentrate on medical specialists and artistes first as they were well-known professions.

“People know them very well, so we want to ensure these professionals behave accordingly as a good taxpayer,” he said.

He also admitted these groups of professionals were known for being tax evaders in the past.

Last month, Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) claimed that IRB was after some 20 specialists in Seremban for under-declaring their income tax.

These specialists were attached to hospitals in their personal capacities but later declared taxes using the hospitals' names.

The tax authority instructed these doctors to pay sums of up to RM1.5 million to RM4 million each in back taxes.

Popular celebrities too

Following this, the MMA said it feared that doctors nationwide might end up being penalised for wrongly declaring their income tax.

In the Nanyang report, the source said IRB had found that lawyers only declared their bigger incomes but not small incomes.

It said the IRB would especially focus on artistes and athletes who had become ambassadors and spokepersons for certain brands.

The more popular celebrities would also likely to be investigated, reported Nanyang.

Shukor, however, said it was a worldwide practice for tax authorities to go after professionals.

He said the IRB realised how the worldwide economy had impacted the country and its citizens and therefore the agency opted to assist the taxpayers by encouraging them to disclose and settle their tax arrears.

“We will introduce a special concession penalty imposition which will run from March 1 to December 15,” he said.