The new inspectors will be recruited both externally and from within HMRC, and are expected to begin work in April. The recruitment drive will be funded by the £5m in funding made available by the Government in September.
The Government said that the Affluent Unit had already performed "well ahead of expectations", having brought in an extra £75m in tax by the end of 2012. The 200-strong team is expected to recoup £586m in tax that would otherwise have gone unpaid by the end of 2015.
"The team has made a great start by bringing in £75m in additional tax that would otherwise have been lost to the country," David Gauke, Exchequer Secretary, said. "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."
The Affluent Compliance Team was set up after the Government set aside £917m to help HMRC increase its annual tax receipts by £7 billion in 2010. It is responsible for scrutinising the tax affairs of about 300,000 people with incomes over £150,000 or wealth between £2.5m and £20m. Typical targets include wealthy people who habitually use avoidance schemes, pay a low effective rate of tax across their total income or have UK and offshore property portfolios.
As announced in September, taxpayers with a net worth of at least £1m instead of the current £2.5m threshold will be brought within the remit of the Affluent Unit when the new inspectors begin in April. The change will result in increased scrutiny of the tax affairs of an additional 200,000 individuals, according to HMRC estimates.
Recruitment advertising will appear before the end of the month according to Roger Atkinson, director of the Affluent Unit. HMRC would be looking for "people with recent commercial and corporate experience in personal tax" to help it understand its customer base, he said.
Tax expert Ray McCann of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said that the news was unsurprising following recent Government announcements that extra resources were being made available to the Affluent Unit. However, he questioned the strong language used by HMRC when announcing the news.
"The tone of the Government and HMRC's announcements will concern many, with the references to 'cheats' and 'honest taxpayers' likely to be viewed by many as inappropriate," he said. "It is to be expected that taken together with HMRC's broader tax avoidance and tax evasion strategies relatively little of the work that the Affluent Unit carries out will be concerned with cases of serious tax evasion. From a strategic perspective, it remains to be seen whether the expansion of the team's remit or the adoption of an overly-aggressive approach will have a detrimental impact on its overall effectiveness."