It's "Pay As You Like" - if you're wealthy, says Panorama

This is the view of a so-called HMRC 'whistleblower' who investigates taxpayers with a net worth of over £20m. It was broadcast as part of last night's Panorama programme that started as a piece about the millions of PAYE demands in the press recently. It moved off target every now and then.

The 'whistleblower' claimed:

"We used to have dedicated teams that would tackle the top 40,000 taxpayers but as a result of rationalisation and a drive for efficiency they've now shed that down to 5,000 - so now we're only looking at the top 5,000."

"I would say we've lost the war... It's become Pay As You Like"

The programme then showed a message from HMRC which said there has been:

"no reduction in resources focused on the tax affairs of wealthy people"

and that HMRC will have £900m more for targeting [tax] evasion and fraud.

Who do you believe?

(Panorama's "Tax: Are you one of the 6 million?" is available on BBC iplayer until 15 November)