France uses artificial intelligence to find secret pools that were not taxed

21 Nov France uses artificial intelligence to find secret pools that were not taxed

By Fabio Vieira and Jhonata Candido

Recently, through Artificial Intelligence, the French government discovered thousands of hidden private pools that were not taxed by the government, a fact that unexpectedly boosted French tax revenues.

The Artificial Intelligence used by the French government was a software developed by Google together and the French company Capgemini, in October 2021, that mapped pools with aerial images of nine regions of the country.

The experiment resulted in a revenue of around 10 million Euros for the government, as more than 20,000 undeclared pools were detected, considering that to own an average swimming pool of 30 square meters in France, you need to pay around 200 Euros per year to the tax authorities.

To identify, in fact, which areas were tax liable, specific algorithms were used, which allowed the extraction of the contours of pools and water structures on the land from the aerial images.

Given this situation, the owners of the irregular pools were notified to pay and regularize the situation towards the government.

Given the whole context and the increased sales of swimming pools during the COVID-19 pandemic, the French tax authorities are already thinking about implement this strategy for the other parts of the country.

In addition, the French authorities claim that, in the future, the software could be used to find undeclared extension territories such as terraces, gardens, and patios, which would cause an increase of property taxes

In view of the above, it can be said that the development of this software is a huge technological advance that can have great impact on real estate taxation, serving as an example for several other countries, as it can locate other types of real estate evasion or undeclared constructions on land that would contribute to the country’s tax revenues.

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