Beware of those who have not declared their pool?
The French tax authorities have a new tool to fight against fraud, which is provided by Google.
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In order to better control the accuracy of declarations concerning swimming pools and buildings, the General Directorate of Public Finances (DGFiP) will rely on certain technologies from the American giant. This collaboration is carried out within the framework of the “Foncier Innovant” project led by the DGFIP and
“which will make it possible to use innovative
artificial intelligence
and big data technologies to guarantee better reliability of the bases of local direct taxation based on aerial shots of the National Institute of Geographic and Forest Information (IGN) ”
, explains the DGFiP in an email to
Le Figaro
.
Concretely, the DGFiP will use algorithms which will allow it to extract from these shots the outlines of swimming pools and buildings to check whether they
“are correctly imposed on local direct taxes (property tax in particular).
Failing that, the owner of the property is invited to regularize his situation ”.
Whether buried in the ground or above ground, with a wooden or rigid structure and even if it does not include any masonry element at the time of installation, a swimming pool, if it cannot be moved without demolishing it,
"constitutes an element of 'building approval forming an outbuilding which must be taken into account for the establishment of the housing tax and the property tax, "
indicates impôt.gouv.fr.
Cloud and artificial intelligence
To refine its controls, the DGFiP will therefore rely on
“Google's platform for the supply of cloud infrastructure and hosting and its services for the development of artificial intelligence models”
.
Justifying appealing to the digital giant, the general direction of public finances explains that it was
“selected in the catalog of public cloud offers of the central purchasing body of the Union of public purchasing groups (UGAP )
”.
The connection between Google and the French tax authorities will be done through the company Capgemini.
To read also: These files which are expensive for the tax authorities
Contacted by
Le Figaro
, Google recalls that its role will be limited only to providing these tools to the French tax authorities. The latter is also reassuring in the face of the risk of use of data by Google
"for purposes other than those for which it is assigned"
, as pointed out by the CGT last March. The technology used
"is not only the object of an appropriation by the teams of the DGFiP but the latter also acquires intellectual property and full control of the algorithmic models developed"
, indicates the DGFiP. It also specifies that only the shots collected by the IGN will be
"processed in the cloud"
but that this will not concern
“All other land and tax data”.
A first experiment in 2019
This collaboration between the tax authorities and an outside company is not unprecedented. In 2019, Bercy had called on the services of the private IT consulting company Accenture to track down cadastral declaration errors, as
Le Parisien
explains
. The experiment was thus carried out in three departments, the Alpes-Maritimes, Charente-Maritime and Drôme. In a few weeks, the software had revealed the existence of around 3,000 non-taxed swimming pools in the Alpes-Maritimes alone. A winning bet for Bercy who had judged the results of Accenture's artificial intelligence software
"very satisfactory",
encouraging it to extend the device.