Lithuanian authorities use Google Street View to search tax evaders for homeowners

Yes, the Lithuanian authorities have come up with an interesting way to search for individuals who have built houses / objects that do not have any permits. In addition, the building is being built without permission, that is, the authorities do not know anything about it, the landlord also does not pay the state anything for the same reason - there is simply no such thing in the databases of the relevant authorities. Well, since it is not in the database, it is not in the list of the tax authority. And here the well-known service Google Maps came to the aid of the authorities.

For several months, officials, simply “walking” through the streets of large and not very populated areas, found quite a lot of undocumented real estate (and about 100 homeowners + 30 construction companies have already been identified that may have evaded taxes).
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An example is given of one of the violators, who must now pay about $ 91,000 in fines for an illegally rebuilt house. Another pair of offenders declared land for sale, however, "forgot" to mention the house that was on this land, and was sold separately. This offense cost the sly 50 thousand dollars.

Lithuanian tax authorities began using Google Maps and Google Street View to search for violators from about the beginning of the year. The search procedure is simple. The official, as mentioned above, simply “strolls” along a virtual street, referring to the base of real estate.

As soon as he sees something suspicious, an inspector is sent to the place (already physically), who checks whether the landlord has violated something or not. According to representatives of the tax service, this is a much more efficient way of working than taking the time of inspectors with physical walks through the streets of real settlements. In addition, the “virtual” journey saves not only the time of officials, but also the resources that are usually spent on business trips, transportation costs and other needs.

Also, officials believe that this way of working does not violate the rights of citizens. Maybe this is the case, since lawyers from the Human Rights Monitoring Institute also confirm the point of view of the tax inspectorate.

I wonder how soon a similar method of detecting illegal real estate will be used in other countries?

Via phys.org