Aug 30, 2022 20:00:00

French tax authorities use AI to discover more than 20,000 ``tax-escaped pools'' from the sky

A system created by the French tax authority in partnership with Google and

Capgemini has revealed that 20,356 undeclared pools were discovered among the swimming pools that originally required tax declaration procedures. . The tax authorities have sent a dunning letter to the pool owner.

French tax officials use AI to spot 20,000 undeclared pools | France | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/29/french-tax-officials-use-ai-to-spot-20000-undeclared-pools

France Used Google AI to Snuff Out Undeclared Swimming Pools
https://gizmodo.com/ai-taxes-france-swimming-pools-1849470533

Swimming pools are fixed assets in France and must be declared by the owner to the tax office within 90 days of completion. In the case of a general 30 square meter pool, a property tax of about 200 euros (about 28,000 yen) will be charged annually. However, since these are left to self-reporting, it seems that there are often pools that are evading taxes.

Under these circumstances, the technical team of the French Tax Authority created a system that can identify pools across the country through aerial photography. According to the authorities, it is possible to discover undeclared pools by matching the image of the pool discovered using AI with the registration information held by the tax authorities.

More than 20,000 pools have been discovered in tests conducted from 2021, and a total of 10 million euros (about 1.38 billion yen) has already been collected.

However, the system is not yet accurate, and it seems that it is not possible to determine 100% whether what you found is a pool or a terrace. As of April 2022, it was revealed that the system's tolerance was 30%. At this point, I knew I had mistaken the solar panels for pools, and that I could not find pools hidden under trees or behind buildings.

However, it is also reported that the construction of private pools in France has increased rapidly due to the pandemic caused by the new coronavirus infection, and the number has reached 3.2 million, which is the second largest in the world. To collect uncollected taxes from this growing pool, the tax authorities plan to roll out the system nationwide. As a result, the tax revenue from the private pool in 2023 is expected to reach 40 million euros (about 5.5 billion yen), which is four times the amount of this additional collection.