The British "Guardian" reported on August 30 local time that the French tax department has used artificial intelligence (AI) technology to find tens of thousands of private pools that have not been declared and taxed according to law, with a total tax evasion of 10 million euros (about 69.27 million yuan RMB). The AI software uses aerial footage to determine whether swimming pools in France have been taxed.
According to reports, the local law stipulates that the new and expanded swimming pools must declare property taxes, and every 30 square meters of swimming pool needs to pay a tax of 200 euros (about 1385 yuan RMB) per year. The Directorate General of Public Finance announced on Monday that the AI technology, developed jointly by Capgemini Consulting and Google, has been activated in nine regions of France, detecting more than 20,000 swimming pools that have not been declared, involving 10 million euros in taxes (about 69.27 million yuan RMB).
France will make the technology available across the country starting in September, bringing an additional €40 million (about 277 million yuan) in property taxes to 2023. The technology will reportedly cost 24 million euros (about 166 million yuan) from 2021 to 2023, and the government looks like it's a good deal. In the future, France also plans to apply this AI detection technology to other expansion buildings, such as balconies, garden shelters, etc.
However, the french tax department's technical team says the technology is not yet mature, and sometimes it is not accurate to determine what the object in the aerial image is. In April, the AI software developed by Google and Capgemini was reported to have a 30 percent error rate, mistaking solar panels for swimming pools, or even failing to capture taxable extensions hidden in the shade of trees or in the shadows of homes. It is said that this technology has been continuously improved.
France said the technology could not only detect homes that had evaded taxes, but also determine which ones did not need to pay taxes. Antoine Magnant, deputy director of the French Public Finance Agency, said: "This is only the second stage of our research, and it can be used in the future to determine whether the house is vacant, so that there is no need to pay taxes." ”
Now France has adopted such a strict regulatory approach, not only to effectively control private pools, but more likely to deal with the serious shortage of water resources.
First of all, we need to understand the number of private pools in France. According to Statista statistics, by the end of 2021, the number of private pools in France will reach 3.2 million, and during the epidemic prevention and control period in 2020 and 2021, many people will work from home, and the number of pool installations will increase significantly. According to statistics, France has a swimming pool for every 38 people, far more than Germany (1:112), Italy (1:180), Portugal (1:105) and most European countries, which is enough to see the popularity of private pools in French families.
This summer, some countries and regions around the world have extremely high temperature weather, sudden and unquenchable mountain fires, serious drought problems, many rivers that should have sufficient water levels have reached a record low, the phenomenon of drying up, and serious water shortages. France is also one of the affected countries, with the highest temperature once exceeding 45 degrees Celsius.
Because of the shortage of water, the cooling of nuclear reactors cannot be guaranteed, which will affect the amount of power generation. France's power stations, which rely on the Rhine and Garonne rivers, reduced their power generation on a large scale in August this year, only to ensure that the grid is basically stable. When supply outstrips supply, prices rise. France has already fallen into an energy crisis this year, electricity prices are already running high, and the reduction in electricity caused by the water crisis may further push up electricity prices.
The more serious problem of people's livelihood is naturally the problem of drinking water. In early August, France's Ministry of Ecological Transformation said that more than 100 towns in France had dry water pipes and no water to drink, and that water needed to be borrowed from other cities to alleviate the extreme water shortage. The whole country is facing the problem of water shortage, and water conservation has become the primary issue.
When drinking water is a problem, there is nothing wrong with restricting the use of recreational water, and the French capital Paris has also taken measures to limit the amount of water used in public recreational facilities. Environmentalists in France have called on the government to ban private pools. However, French government officials said the government did not support a ban on private pools, but would use other means to ensure the rational use of water resources.
As mentioned above, the French tax authorities have found more than 20,000 unpaid swimming pools in only 9 regions, does this also reflect that the government did not pay special attention to the situation of private pools before? Now, with the social problems caused by the shortage of water resources highlighted, it remains to be seen whether there will be stricter pool water restrictions first, which is very common in France, and then it will be well regulated and taxed.