It is a new weapon in the tax administration’s toolbox to combat fraud: the innovative land project, based on artificial intelligence, has enabled the DGFiP to unearth 140,000 undeclared swimming pools. The tax authorities will attack other outbuildings: garages, verandas, garden sheds, outbuildings, etc.
Algorithms that combine data and public aerial images from the IGN (those that everyone can consult on geoportail.gouv.fr): here is concretely what is hidden behind the innovative land project of the General Directorate of Public Finances (DGFiP) . A project based on the technologies and know-how of Capgemini and Google, which is also far from being secret, since the DGFiP details the broad outlines of this experiment on impots.gouv.fr.
The first step was the swimming pools. In a selection of departments initially. Then everywhere in France. When presenting the results of the fight against tax fraud in 2023, the Minister for Public Accounts Thomas Cazenave affirmed that 140 swimming pools not declared to the tax authorities had been able to be detected thanks to the innovative land system. And the DGFiP was thus able to regularize their land tax, in the first place.
Real estate taxes: 140,000 undeclared swimming pools identified by the tax authorities thanks to AI
Second step? Other dependencies. Bercy has never hidden this objective: An experiment is already underway on the detection of undeclared or incorrectly taxed buildings and moreover, the Innovative Land project should also make it possible to evolve the methods of updating buildings on the cadastral plan, we read in an August 2022 document on artificial intelligence in the fight against fraud.
The year 2024 will be that of the activation of this second stage as explained Capital in a dedicated article: Now, we are moving from swimming pools to buildings, declared Thomas Cazenave on Wednesday March 20. We have started the work, and we will be able to deploy it during the coming year with the DGFiP.