About a year ago, the Tax Office and the AADE audit mechanism with the help of artificial intelligence they began to “scan” Attica initially and then across the country to find undeclared pools. Using aerial photos and a special algorithm, he “marked” the blue points on the satellite map and then distinguished swimming pools from basketball or tennis courts.
AADE, having now collected all the data, is in the next round of checks. He is waiting for information from the Land Registry to “run” the intersections of tax returns to “discover” taxpayers who “forgot” to declare the swimming pools they own. Those who are found to have a swimming pool that they did not declare to the tax authorities or were built illegally will face taxes and fines that can go back to 10 years.
When the IRS discovered artificial intelligence
As the head of AADE, Giorgos Pitsilis, speaking at the international conference of the Chamber of Commerce, said, with artificial intelligence the tax authority created a model that finds all the blue that we see on the map, ” scans” areas and differentiates the pool with a high degree of accuracy from the basketball court.
Based on the tax returns submitted in 2023, 22,623 taxpayers declared that they have an outdoor swimming pool in their home while 345 natural persons seem to have an indoor swimming pool in their residences.
Cross-references of pool data with tax return data identify taxpayers who own pools but do not report them to the tax office to avoid the presumption of living and ENFIA, or establish them without the necessary permit.
In cases where it is established that the taxpayer has not declared the pool, the procedures for the imposition of fines and taxes such as ENFIA, the income tax because it is a presumption of living will be initiated, while at the same time a luxury residence tax will be imposed. The data will also be sent to the urban planning authorities, so that they can also impose the appropriate fines provided by law in case of illegal construction of swimming pools.
It should be noted that the current tax regime provides that swimming pools are charged with VAT because they are considered auxiliary places of residence and have the same tax treatment as warehouses and parking lots.
It is also a presumption of living that is activated from the first square meter and is also applied to communal swimming pools located in residential complexes.
speculation
More specifically, the presumption of living for owners of swimming pools is defined on a scaled basis as follows:
– At 160 euros per square meter up to sixty 60 square meters and
– At 320 euros per square meter, for an area of more than 60 square meters.
Luxury living tax
Taxpayers with swimming pools are also charged the luxury residence tax for indoor and outdoor pools, which is equal to the product of the amount of the annual purpose expenditure multiplied by a rate of 13%.