In an recent announcement HMRC have confirmed that anybody worth more than £1 million faces coming under scrutiny from inspectors in a fresh crackdown on tax avoidance.
Expected to bring a fresh wave of attention to more than 200,000 taxpayers HM Revenue and Customs’ affluence unit is to target everyone with assets in excess of £1 million. Originally set up to study the affairs of the 300,000 with assets and property of more than £2.5 million the affluance unit is growing by 50% from 200 to 300 staff.
Whilst no doubt not politically driven, this announcement comes hard on the heels of the “Jimmy Carr” reverlations and runs hand in hand with another initiative expected to target other high earning BBC Personalities to prevent them from using tax avoidance strategies.
It seems that the political dogma surrounding tax planning (morally repugnant) and the ongoing misinformation about what is tax evasion (illegal) and tax avoidance (wholly legal) is set to continue throughout the current parliament. It is, however unfortunate that these recent initiatives suggest that the wealthy are ‘up to no good’ when the vast majority have created and amassed wealth paying all duties and taxes throughout.
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