French tax authorities have identified literally tens of thousands of hidden swimming pools with the help of artificial intelligence.
As reported by French news television BFMTV, the system developed by Google and Capgemini has been run in nine departments of the IRS, comparing data from aerial photographs with available data on various landholdings. In France, higher taxes must be paid for plots with a swimming pool.
Among other things, this may be the reason why, according to data currently surveyed – not yet at the national level – at least 6 percent of swimming pools are not declared by their owners.
In France in 2020, there were more than 3.2 million swimming pools on private property, according to data from a statistical portal. As more and more workers were working from home during the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of pool facilities increased even more.
The current surveys have been conducted in the southeastern part of the country, so they have “peeked” at the plots of land owned by the unsuspecting owners in Alpes-Maritimes, Var, Bouches-du-Rhône and Haute-Savoie, as well as Vendée provinces, which are mostly wealthy and have very high land prices .
The tax office discovered 20356 unauthorized swimming pools in these areas. After a survey conducted in nine French departments, bills of €10 million were sent to the forgetful owners.
The system just tested will be expanded to cover the entire country.
Cover photo: Pexels.com
