Ingenious swimming pools discovered by a tax officer thanks to Google Maps

Eliminate building violations with artificial intelligence. It’s the new tool France is testing that is currently focused on illegal swimming pools, allowing a Paris tax officer to recover 10 million euros so far.

The survey system developed by the Directorate General of Public Finance (French Revenue Agency), called “Foncier Innovative” (Innovative Territory), has been developed in collaboration with the consulting company Capgemini and the American digital giant Google: it allows you to identify constructions or are in operation thanks to aerial images of Google Maps and to check what If it has been declared and whether it has been properly taxed. The system automatically compares the aerial photographs with the municipality’s cadastral record. Since last year, it has been tested in nine departments of Alpes Maritimes, Var, Bouches-du-Rhone, Ardèche, Rhône, Haute-Savoie, Morbihan, Maine-et-Loire and Fendi.

The result is that 20,356 hidden swimming pools have been discovered in these areas which will be taxed under the property tax due for 2022. “This represents approximately ten million euros in additional revenue for the affected municipalities for 2022 alone.” The General Directorate of Public Finance announced to AFP. Of these 10 million euros, 5.7 million euros were raised to address the tax shortfall in previous years and 4.1 million for property tax for 2022. According to estimates, profits in terms of direct local taxes should reach nearly 40 million euros in 2023″ , once the system is circulated.

He adds that “these new resources, which will be partially duplicated to local authorities, will ensure the profitability of the project starting from the second year of its implementation”, with an estimated cost of 24 million euros in the period 2021-2023. In September, he said Le MondeThe CGT-Finances Publique union has expressed its “interest” in the project, noting that artificial intelligence in this way will replace public servants, in the context of the continuous reduction of the staff of the Ministry of Finance.