HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has decided to take its crusade to clamp down on affluent tax dodgers one step further.
The tax man has announced that it will be ramping up its investigations, hiring an extra 100 inspectors to its Affluent Compliance Team.
Created in 2010, as a result of £917 million in funding – presumably from tax payers’ cash- this team already has 200 eagle eyed spies and does what it says on the tin – targets wealthy Britons living in the UK who may be concealing money from the Revenue.
The HMRC said that it was now adding to its team as a result of a £5 million investment in September last year.
To be in with a chance of gaining a position in the team, the HMRC says applicants must have external experience and appropriate qualifications for inspector and lead case director roles.
With the announcement the watchdog has also said it’s expanding its search, targeting those who are sitting on a fortune of £1 million to £20 million, from the previous start figure of £2.5 million.
Fat cats with annual earnings of more than £150,000 are also being scrutinised.
Overall the amount of people that fall into these categories make up around 300,000 of the British population, HMRC claimed.
Since the unit opened the HMRC said it’s been successful in raking in the cash, claiming that by the end of December 2012 the department had brought in an extra £75 million in tax, which was “well ahead of expectations”.
It now has set itself a target of £586 million by the end of 2015.
