HMRC ’s ‘affluent compliance team’ is to recruit an extra 100 tax inspectors in its bid to clamp down on wealthy tax avoiders. The unit will target taxpayers earning over £150,000 and with wealth of between £2.5m and £20m, as well as those with wealth in the range £1m to £2.5m.

Treasury secretary David Gauke said: ‘HMRC set up the new affluent teams from some of the £917m we made available in 2010. The team has made a great start by bringing in £75m in additional tax that would otherwise have been lost to the country.

‘The vast majority of people pay their way. Dodging tax is immoral, illegal and unaffordable, and the minority who cheat are increasingly finding that, thanks to the work of the affluent team, they have made a big mistake.’

By the end of December the unit had brought in an extra £75m in tax – well ahead of expectations – with a target of £586m by the end of 2015.

Roger Atkinson, HMRC’s affluent teams director, said: ‘In September 2012 the government announced an additional investment of £5m, enabling us to recruit an extra 100 inspectors. We will recruit from within HMRC and externally, and the new team will be fully operational by April and focused on delivering an additional £75m a year.

‘We want to recruit people with external experience and appropriate qualifications for inspector and lead case director roles. We want people with recent commercial and corporate experience in personal tax to help us understand our customer base. This is an exciting opportunity to work at the forefront, tackling those who do not pay the right tax.

‘Good quality intelligence is central to catching the cheats and so we are expanding our Affluent Intelligence Unit fourfold. This is very good news for all honest taxpayers.’

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