Tax inspectors have been given wide-ranging new powers to bug people’s homes and private phone calls. They also have the go-ahead to intercept emails and plant listening devices in suspects’ cars and offices. The move is the latest expansion of surveillance powers which, until recently, were only available to the police and intelligence services. Senior revenue officials have been given the power to sanction the use of surveillance techniques under the same rules that govern the work of MI5, GCHQ and the police. Customs officers who are fighting gun-runners, drug-smugglers and people-traffickers have also had similar surveillance approval. Revenue officers used to work to a set of strict rules that even banned them from looking in cupboards at a home or business during a visit without express permission. But now officials investigating allegations of tax evasion can pry into every aspect of a suspect’s life in the hunt for evidence.
When has the Tax caught larger business, it’s mainly the smaller people they go after…