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Drones Reveal Widespread Tax Evasion In Argentina
Tailhook (98486) writes "The Argentine government has used drones to reveal 200 homes and 100 pools in an upper class area about ten miles south of Buenos Aires that had not been detailed on tax returns. Tax officials said the drones took pictures of luxury houses standing on lots registered as empty. The evasions found by the drones amounted to missing tax payments of more than $2 million and owners of the properties have been warned they now face large fines."
Only they were using aerial, then later satellite photos. We scanned the aerials, orthorectified them then registered them in a coordinate system for the city's GIS. They'd overlay a lot map and go plot by plot looking for pools, decks, and additions that weren't in the property tax database. These were mostly wealthy towns in Connecticut where this stuff added up to real money.
Now of course you can do that with Google Maps, if you don't mind waiting 1-3 years to catch people.
Just because you do *exactly the same thing* with a slightly different tool doesn't make it new. Back from those days one of the senior managers used to come into my office and say, "I just read about this patent where --" and I'd cut him off right there.
"This isn't going to be another one of those things where they take something people have been doing for ages with LORAN and substitute GPS, is it?" I ask.
"Well..."
"I don't want to hear about it. Whatever it is the patent is sure not to stand up to scrutiny, but I still don't want them holding treble damages over our head."
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So what if drones are doing it vs satellite or photos from a plane with a human at the controls.
In Lee County, Florida(and I'm sure others) they take 20+ aerial photographs a year, from above, N, E,S, and West 'birds eye', AND hire people to look for violations, New Roof, Fence, pool, WHATEVER? from previous years? Is there a permit issued? If not, send in the tax collectors... They also go after people with lawns that are too long, etc.
the images from google maps are at least 2 years old. That's at least 2 fiscal years worth of fraud and fines.
It'll certainly make things a little easier on the non-tax cheats who have to pay more to cover these assholes.
Google Street View, Google Satellite View are all now being used by lazy local governments.
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
Wordprocessors are used by lazy typists and compilers are used by lazy programmers.
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I don't see how drones would help since the it sounds like the corruption has already been reveal. The citizens just need to decide how they're going to deal with it.