Rummuser sent me a link to this article:
New Delhi: Tax evasion is likely to get more difficult, if not impossible, with the entry of Big Data Analytics into the Income Tax (I-T) Department’s realm of tools to check tax evasion starting April 1.
The Rs 1,000 crore-programme named “Project Insight” would track social networking profiles of people and keep a tab on the expenditure patterns through the photographs and videos uploaded on social media.
If the purchases and travel expenses are found to be disproportionate to the declared income of a person, the I-T officials would be informed of the mismatch and actions would follow.
—I-Tax Department to Use Big Data Analytics from April to Check Tax Evasion
Leave it to India to use its IT talents. Do you think something like that is a good idea?
Thank you, Rummuser!
March 30, 2019
sounds fair to me. if it IS fair. and if there are no trumped up (pardon the pun!) charges of purchases or expenditures!
Yes. As long as the system just flags people for further looking, and that there is no corruption.
Hi-tech big brother? Really?
Do you think the cons outweigh the pros?
As we all well know, there are people who evade taxes habitually, with no apparent repercussions. And it isn’t usually poorer people-quite the opposite!So it’s about time someone did something about it!
Yes, the wealthy have all sorts of ways of avoiding taxes. Is it bad in Canada too?
I can’t quite grasp how that work… especially in rather large countries
I can’t imagine the details of how it will be done, but computers are superfast nowadays, and they’re getting good at recognizing people. China in particular is working a face recognition.
No.
No no no
The Government has no business getting into our lives in such a way.
I think most people are fabricating their lives in some ways on Instagram and Facebook, blogs etc. anyway.
Nothing is ever as it appears.
My neighbor has a photo of him and his wife lounging next to a huge in ground pool as their background photo on Facebook. He’s never SAID it’s his house but people assume it. And take it from me, there’s no pool over there but rather a broken hot tub on the driveway.
I’m no better myself. If you go to my Instagram my home looks very tidy.
I assure you it’s not. Most likely I’ve shoved a box of something or the insides of some dog toy’s stuffing out of the way. I make it appear to be much nicer than it is, as do most people and I certainly wouldn’t want some Government official checking into me to see how I bought something.
And if I do have nice things, it’s always from a thrift store or some hand me down from a relative.
So, NO.
And yes, there are always going to be people evading taxes but they never seem to single out the wealthy bigwigs but rather those just trying to creatively getting by.
You make a good point! I do think there should be more checking of people who owe big sums that never get collected.
Clever but I don’t think I like it. As Cindi says there’s too much life inflation on social media. With photoshop you can appear to be nearly anywhere in the world without actually going there. Our nephew lives in Singapore; it would not be hard to insert ourselves into his family’s photos. Another nephew ives in Cambridge, England. A niece lives in Australia. We could photographically visit lots of places without actually leaving home.
I suppose it’s that inflation that causes big users of social media to get depressed. They compare their lives to the fantasies posted.
An interesting way to catch tax evaders. I wonder though, how many people will be wrongfully charged with tax evasion over something they posted on social media.
One would have to be very careful not to believe everything that gets posted. It would be more of a red flag. In the old days they sometimes relied on neighbors to snitch — that has its problems too if the people investigating aren’t fair and honest.
The problem in the UK is that the wealthy employ accountants to minimise their tax liabilities, hide their money in offshore tax havens, and browbeat the tax authorities into accepting less money than they owe. The rest of us can’t escape paying tax as it’s taken from our wage packets under the Pay As You Earn system. Anything the tax people can do to get hold of tax that should be paid but isn’t seems fair enough to me.