Greece Uses High-Tech Drones To Fight Tax Evasion In Holiday Hotspots (channelnewsasia.com)

Posted by BeauHD on Monday September 24, 2018 @01:25PM from the eyes-in-the-sky dept.

Greece is reportedly using drones to fly over boats running day trips on the Aegean in an effort to crack down on rampant tax evasion at holiday hotspots. Channel NewsAsia reports: With the black economy by some accounts representing about a quarter of national output in a country which depends hugely on tourism, Greek authorities are turning to high-tech to stamp out undeclared earnings. Finance ministry tax inspectors and the coast guard launched the drones project on Santorini, an island highly popular with tourists, to check on whether operators offering short day trips were issuing legal receipts to all their passengers. Based on data from the drones, authorities were able to establish how many passengers were on board, then cross-referenced it with declared receipts and on-site inspections. Nine tourist vessels checked were alleged to have not issued a number of receipts, totaling about $29,460. Their owners now face fines.

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Please Say You Weren't Surprised.... by kenwd0elq · 2018-09-24 13:36 · Score: 4, Informative

There shouldn't be anything surprising that Greece would use drones to find tax cheats. Remember, they were among the early adopters to use Google Earth to find backyard swimming pools that didn't appear on the tax rolls. Greeks have a very "Catch me if you can!" attitude toward their own tax collectors.