In the striking out notice, the government said Shafee’s counterclaim was an abuse of the court process.

“This counterclaim breaches Order 73 Rule 4(1) which states that a person, in a tax recovery action against him or her, cannot file a counterclaim.

“This counterclaim is disputing the tax assessment, and the proper avenue to ventilate this issue is before the Special Commissioners of Income Tax or SCIT,” LHDN said in its application.

The board, in its lawsuit filed at the High Court here, alleged that Shafee owed the government the sum as unpaid tax over five years – 2011 (RM434,326.17), 2012 (RM978,854.11), 2013 (RM3.58 million), 2014 (RM1.73 million) and 2016 (RM1.82 million).

LHDN said notices of assessments for the five years were mailed to Shafee’s last known address here on May 31, 2019, but the notices were never returned to the department.

Shafee, who is representing Najib Razak in all his 1MDB-related cases, was previously slapped with four counts of money laundering involving a sum of RM9.5 million, purportedly from the former prime minister, received seven years ago.

Two out of Shafee’s four charges were related to allegations that he made false declarations to LHDN in 2014. His trial is pending before the High Court.

The lawyer had in August filed a counterclaim to LHDN’s RM9.41 million lawsuit, claiming that the notices of assessments for the five years are void.

He also claimed that he suffered a loss of reputation and business in his legal practice, due to LHDN’s civil action.

“The plaintiff (LHDN) had abused the Income Tax Act provisions in this matter,” Shafee said in his counterclaim.

Besides the striking out application against Shafee’s counterclaim, LHDN also sought for the lawyer’s case to be decided through summary judgment, where the court decides a case without hearing testimony of witnesses.