Spot the difference

Prime Minister Gordon Brown and President Barack Obama have both committed through the G-20 process to tackling tax avoidance and evasion. But which one is the more serious about taking practical steps in this direction?

Clues:

Staff cuts at HMR&C have led to the shedding of 20,000 tax officers in recent years, and accounting firms are already complaining about declining service standards due to understaffing - see here. Further staff cuts have already been announced and service standards are expected to decline further. Hard to see how this will lead to a strengthening of anti-avoidance/evasion effort.

On the other hand, the crack down on tax havens announced in Washington on 4th May 2009 included the following specific proposal:

3. Hire Nearly 800 New IRS Staff to Increase International Enforcement: As part of the President's budget, the IRS would be provided with funds to support the hiring of nearly 800 new employees devoted specifically to international enforcement. The funding would allow the IRS to hire new agents, economists, lawyers and specialists, increasing the IRS' ability to crack down on offshore tax avoidance and evasion, including through transfer pricing and financial products and transactions such as purported securities loans. According to estimates by the IRS, every additional dollar invested in enforcement in recent years has yielded about four dollars in added tax revenues.