Google to the rescue! Well that is if you’re the tax man. The tax authorities of Lithuania have a new reason to be thankful for google. The fine people of the Google street view team who man cars armed with cameras are helping this poor country catch tax evaders. After the global financial crisis began in 2008, the country was forced to fire a quarter of its taxation department’s employees. This lead to the department being severely understaffed, but thanks to google they are still able to collect on the money thats due.
Two recent cases netted $130,000 in taxes and penalties after investigators found houses photographed by Google that weren’t on official maps. The department’s city office located 10 miles away, were able to detect that contrary to official records, the house with the hammock existed and that, in one photograph, three cars were parked in the driveway. Lithuania is not the only country in the European Union to do so, with cash strapped countries such as Greece following suit.
Even wealthy countries such as Great Britain are taking advantage of the free spying. According to the UK’s Daily Mail, HM Revenue & Customs believes that there is still an estimated £35 million that should have been collected in taxes but hasn’t. In addition, they have been using social media sites such as Facebook in order to monitor discrepancies in what people claim they have versus the reality.
With all the recent attention the IRS has received in the past year, it’s not so crazy to think that they have already adopted this practice in the U.S. But does this violate our rights to privacy? Unfortunately we probably won’t know until someone takes the IRS to court.
Comment Template