Argentina’s tax authorities are using satellite images generated on the Internet by Google Earth to track down fraud.
According to Buenos Aires province tax official Santiago Montoya, images of properties from the sky can help square the actual size of properties with that declared by taxpayers to make sure the proper amount of taxes is being paid.
The online Google Earth service…is also used by the Buenos Aires authorities to check if taxpayers may have expanded their homes in ways that would increase their value for taxation.
Cripes! We’ve just about started paying attention to zoning in my neck of the woods.
Well, I’ll start. Seems like a totally appropriate use of the technology to me.
Ready alternative is to have annual inspections of property by some bureaucrat with police backup?
No, I prefer these passive enforcement techniques.
As to zoning–it should be done with much more skill and foresight. Related is building codes==I hate them, even the safety ones. I would prefer a model code but then a detailed title report that would simply list all the codes that are not met and let the market rule. For instance–I don’t want a window of a minimum size in my kitchen given its location. For instance, I want to use plastic pipes for water supply. For instance, I want to inclose my breeze way but can’t because it is low by 2 inches. I don’t feel like it is my castle anymore!
I just had a new air-conditioning unit installed and had to get a permit from the county. It was only a replacement for the old unit.
2—Many building codes require a permit to replace wall switches. Not enforced much.
OK,
Platform UP…
I believe that Land taxes should ONLY be on the land, not the house I built. I may take 20 years to build something I like, thats big enough for my family.
Just because I have 3 bathrooms and 12 bed rooms SHOULDNT cause my taxes to increase. I could make ALOT of shacks out side for my kids, but I dont want to run improvements to all of them.
Just because I take a a couple thousand per year to INVEST into my home shouldnt Force me to SELL my home, because you THINK my home is worth MORE… I want better siding as the 80 year old stuff JUST AINT up to par.
I want to fix my floor, and you raise my taxes.
I put up a metal roof(I need a roof) and you charge me MORE…the house had a roof LONG ago, and you should TAX me for putting up a better one.
Sooo, WHAT, I mowed the grass and you raise my taxes because it looks NICER…
If you want to tax a HOME tax by the SqFt, it take OF the land available. NOT on improvements….
In Kansas they are required to do appraisal for property taxes every ten years. The first step in most counties is a fresh set areal photos. This has been going on since at least the 1980’s here.
In Ontario, they’ve been massively over-assessing people in rural areas for almost five years – all my neighbours have had to fight the system tooth and nail to get an accurate (not overstated) tax assesment.
If they were using this, then mayby they’d have made more accurate assessments in the first place. But the quality of images might not be good enough to make accurate judgements…
#6 – a tool like this could help with accurate assesments but that’s not necessarily this issue. Raising assessments is one the the standard tools local gov’ts use for sucking in more money. Ex:
City council comes up with some pet project they don’t have funds for. Suddenly everyone’s assesed property values go up far beyond inflation, meaning taxes increase. Next year city has extra funds.
They have done tax assessment from the air outside the cities here for decades…..much easier that way.
But I think I recently read that the UK was now using Google to do the same, especially in the cities.
green shingles, anyone?
Anyone for a Mirrored surface??