Danny Alexander has advised the BBC that he will be announcing, to the Liberal Democrat Party Conference, the recruitment of 2,000 more tax inspectors. Their role will apparently be to 'challenge' wealthy taxpayers who use accountants to avoid paying "their fair share".
He cited recent successes in specific campaigns such as the Tax Health Plan [ Recent? It closed in June 2010! - Ed ] as evidence that more resources allocated to this area would produce more tax yield, and there was an emphasis on taxpayers who are exposed to the 50% tax rate.
More will hopefully become clear in the speech itself but for now it seems that Mr. Alexander is determined to ensure that the 50% tax band does yield positive cashflows into the Treasury.
It should also be noted that he has not yet clarified whether or not these are new posts, or just a re-allocation of resource from the existing workforce at HM Revenue & Customs. Given the length of time it takes to train an Inspector in enquiry work, it would seem unlikely that HMRC is going to recruit externally, otherwise it would take too long to yield the results required for political purposes.
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