As the Guardian reports this morning:
The number of tax evasion cases being pursued by HM Revenue & Customs has fallen to its lowest level in five years.
Lawyers Pinsent Masons said the number of serious tax evasion cases — with more than £50,000 of suspected tax evasion — had fallen by a quarter in the past year. Meanwhile the number of raids undertaken in the 2011-12 tax year has risen to 499 from 196 in the 2010-11 tax year.
In 2011-12 there were 3,346 suspected tax avoidance cases, down from the 4,506 in 2010-11, according to data compiled by the law firm.
Definitions matter of course on just what a case is, but in this case so long as consitent defintions are used the message here is very loud and very clear: HMRC simply don't have the resources to do the job of tackling the tax gap. Some of us have been saying so for some time.
In that light, Danny Alexander's claim he's cracking down because he's reallocating 100 tax inspectors to an "affluence unit" looks to be exactly what it is - a sham.
And the government's challenge to tax avoiders is shown to be utterly hollow. People have a right to be very angry about that.
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I’m always worried when they reallocate staff. These people weren’t sitting around waiting for some work.
One door closes another opens.
I don’t think we can exclusively blame this government for the declining numbers of HMRC staff. You may remember this better than me Richard but didn’t Brown make swathes of them redundant? No party seems to have the interests of the electorate as a concern in this regard.
I don’t dispute that
I criticised him too
But at least for some time he had rising revenues on his side
Judging by the amount of people I know receiving bills for underpayment from the revenue, the government/hmrc is starting to do something about the tax-gap !