Business
French Tax Collectors Use A.I. to Spot Thousands of Undeclared Pools
PARIS — For these attempting to offset France’s more and more sweltering summers by constructing swimming swimming pools, the tax authorities have a message: In the event you’re considering of saving cash by protecting your pool hidden from property tax collectors, we’re watching — from above.
Over 20,000 unreported swimming swimming pools have been detected since final October in a handful of French areas by a man-made intelligence software that scans satellite tv for pc photographs of homes and backyards, the authorities introduced this week.
The discoveries will allow the French tax company to gather almost 10 million euros, or about $10 million, in property taxes, the authorities mentioned. The software can be deployed nationwide within the coming months after being examined over the previous yr in 9 administrative departments, just like the Var area on the Mediterranean coast and the Morbihan space of Brittany.
France’s Normal Directorate of Public Funds mentioned in an announcement that “by optimizing the method of detecting undeclared constructions or developments,” the challenge goals to “combat extra successfully towards anomalies” and reply to calls for for “equity and financial justice.”
In France, completely constructed swimming pools enhance property taxes as a result of they increase a property’s worth. Swimming pools are taxed by dimension and based on native tax charges; the typical 30-square-meter pool, or roughly 323 sq. ft, prices the proprietor about 200 euros in taxes per yr. Property taxes are paid to native municipalities.
A small minority of France’s 67 million residents personal swimming swimming pools, however they’ve change into more and more standard lately. There are over 3 million personal swimming swimming pools in France, and over 240,000 have been inbuilt 2021 alone, based on France’s Federation of Pool and Spa Professionals, an trade lobbying group.
Antoine Magnant, the deputy director common of public funds, hailed the brand new software program as a supply of further income for native authorities, that are anticipated to achieve almost 40 million euros in taxes in 2023 due to it.
Mr. Magnant instructed Le Parisien, which was first to report on the software’s outcomes, that the factitious intelligence could be fine-tuned and improved to identify different building that will increase property values and should be registered with the authorities, like sunrooms.
“We’ve to ensure that the software program can discover buildings with massive footprints, not the doghouse or the kids’s playhouse,” Mr. Magnant mentioned.
The algorithms have been developed by the French tax company in cooperation with Capgemini, a French consulting agency, and makes use of open-source software program by Google. Neither firm has entry to French tax knowledge, the authorities confused.
The software scans publicly accessible satellite tv for pc photographs, analyzes the environment of constructed buildings and identifies swimming pools, which are sometimes not possible to see over partitions or hedges however might be detected from above as white or blue rectangles or ovals. The software then compares these outcomes with an present database of formally declared pool homeowners and flags any outliers.
To right for any errors made by the software, like a stretch of blue tarp unintentionally flagged as a pool, human beings confirm every discovering, the authorities say.
The French tax company mentioned the algorithm was refined over the course of the testing interval by machine studying and that its present margin of error is small. Ninety-four % of taxpayers who have been contacted by the authorities after being flagged by the software confirmed that they did in reality have a taxable swimming pool.
The 20,356 undeclared swimming pools detected throughout the take a look at interval will lead the authorities to get well 5.7 million euros in again taxes and 4.1 million euros in taxes for 2022, the authorities mentioned.
However some unions representing public finance staff are cautious of the brand new method. They dispute the system’s accuracy and fear that the federal government will reduce jobs and substitute area work by tax collectors and surveyors, who’ve long-term information of their communities, with cursory desk responsibility reviewing the algorithms’ findings.
Philippe Laget, a union official on the Normal Confederation of Labor department that represents public finance staff within the Bouches-du-Rhône division, mentioned in an interview that the software lumped collectively completely constructed swimming pools, that are taxable, with non permanent ones that may be dismantled and should not taxable. Face-to-face interplay with taxpayers is essential to untangling these conditions, he mentioned.
“We aren’t towards know-how,” Mr. Laget mentioned. “However in no case ought to synthetic intelligence substitute human beings.”
The announcement on swimming pools was in a roundabout way tied to the combat towards local weather change or the vitality crunch brought on by the conflict in Ukraine, nevertheless it got here after weeks of devastating wildfires, extreme drought and excessive warmth which have strained Europe’s vitality provide. These crises have raised questions on whether or not hallmarks of recent consolation like swimming swimming pools have been a necessity in occasions like this.
Heightened considerations over air pollution and vitality conservation have already led to rising calls to restrict and even ban using personal jets in France, and a few say France also needs to regulate using swimming swimming pools, regardless of scorching temperatures, as droughts and water restrictions change into more and more frequent.
Julien Bayou, the nationwide secretary of France’s Inexperienced celebration, told the LCI television broadcaster on Tuesday that “if you wish to manage an environmental transition, it needs to be honest.”
“You’ll be able to’t get the inhabitants on board if the wealthy, who by the way in which are the most important polluters, get exemptions,” Mr. Bayou mentioned.
The Justice Department accuses Visa of unfairly stifling competition in debit cards, claiming the company has maintained a monopoly by imposing or threatening to impose higher fees on merchants that also use other payment networks.
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President Biden’s top antitrust enforcers have promised to sue monopolies and block big mergers — a cornerstone of the administration’s economic agenda to restore competition to the economy.
Below are 15 major cases brought by the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission since late 2020 (including cases against Google and Meta initially filed during the Trump administration just before Mr. Biden took office).
The government has won several but not all the cases. And with only a few months remaining for the current administration, the number of suits is climbing, as regulators go after dominant companies in tech, pharmaceuticals, finance and even groceries.
In a lawsuit, the D.O.J. said that more than 60 percent of debit transactions in the United States run on Visa’s network, allowing it to charge over $7 billion in fees each year for processing those transactions. Government lawyers argued that Visa penalizes its customers when they try to use competing services and that it has built a monopoly around payment processing.
The Justice Department accuses Visa of unfairly stifling competition in debit cards, claiming the company has maintained a monopoly by imposing or threatening to impose higher fees on merchants that also use other payment networks.
Read more › The F.T.C. accused three big prescription drug middlemen, known as pharmacy benefits managers, of artificially raising prices for insulin drugs and making it harder for individuals to obtain cheaper options. The legal action targeted CVS Health’s Caremark, Cigna’s Express Scripts and UnitedHealth’s Optum Rx and subsidiaries they’ve created to handle drug negotiations. The three companies collectively control 80 percent of prescriptions in the United States.
The F.T.C. files an administrative complaint, which is not yet public, that seeks to prohibit pharmacy benefit managers from steering patients to drugs that make them more money.
Read more › The F.T.C. sued to block Kroger’s $24.6 billion acquisiton of Albertsons, which, if allowed to proceed, would be the biggest supermarket merger in U.S. history. The companies said the merger would bolster their leverage with suppliers; the government contended that it would drive up prices for shoppers and suppress worker wages.
The hearing, a mini-trial, lasts just over three weeks. The judge in the case has yet to issue a decision.
The trial begins in Oregon, where both grocery companies have a significant presence. The case enters the spotlight as high food prices become a critical focus in the presidential race.
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The F.T.C. and eight states, plus the District of Columbia, sue to block Kroger from acquiring rival supermarket chain Albertsons. They say the deal would most likely result in higher prices for groceries and weakened bargaining power for unionized workers.
Read more › The D.O.J. alleged Google harmed competition over the technology used to place advertising on web sites. The department and eight states said Google acquired rivals through anticompetitive mergers and bullied publishers and advertisers into using the company’s ad technology.
The trial is expected to take about a month. The government has asked for a breakup of the company, requiring Google to sell off some assets.
Read more › The Justice Department and a group of eight states accuse Google of abusing a monopoly over the technology that powers online advertising.
Read more › The D.O.J. and a group of states sued Google, saying its role in about 90 percent of all internet searches made it a monopoly. The lawsuit, which was filed in the final days of the Trump administration, alleged Google uses exclusive contracts with phone makers like Apple and other companies to feature Google search on their devices, making it harder for consumers to use rival search engines like Bing or DuckDuckGo.
In a 277-page ruling, a federal judge calls Google a monopolist and says it has acted illegally to maintain that monopoly. A trial to determine remedies is set to begin in 2025.
Read more › The chief executive of Google’s parent company, Sundar Pichai, counters the government’s narrative in testimony that describes Google’s deals with other tech companies as having been in the best interest of consumers.
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As a trial begins, Satya Nadella, the chief executive of Microsoft, becomes the government’s highest-profile witness in the case when he testifies that even his company has found it difficult to compete with Google’s search products.
Read more › The Justice Department accuses Google of maintaining its monopoly over search and search advertising, crowding out competition through exclusive business contracts.
Read more › An F.T.C. lawsuit sought to block Tapestry’s $8.5 billion acquisition of Capri, a blockbuster fashion tie-up to bring together Coach, Kate Spade, Michael Kors and Versace. The suit was a rare move by the agency to block a fashion deal, given that the industry does not suffer from a lack of competition.
A hearing, which effectively serves as a mini-trial, begins over whether the government should put a halt to the deal while the F.T.C. can mount a case against the merger.
The F.T.C. sues to block a merger of two fashion companies, Tapestry and Capri Holdings, that would bring together brands like Coach, Michael Kors and Kate Spade. The agency says the deal could force millions of consumers to pay more for “accessible luxury” accessories — less expensive goods sold by high-end firms — because the combined company would no longer have the incentive to compete on price.
Read more › An antitrust lawsuit filed by the D.O.J. and several states against RealPage, a real estate software company, said its technology enabled landlords to collude to raise rents across the country. It was the first major civil antitrust lawsuit to centrally feature the role of an algorithm in pricing manipulation, D.O.J. officials said.
In its complaint, the Justice Department accuses RealPage of enabling a price-fixing conspiracy that artificially raised rents for millions of people.
Read more › The D.O.J. accused Apple of using a monopoly in the smartphone market to stifle competition and inflate prices for consumers. In its suit, the department said Apple blocked companies from offering apps that competed with Apple versions, including Messages and Wallet.
Apple files a motion to dismiss the case, saying its business decisions didn’t violate antitrust laws. It has argued that those decisions make the iPhone a better experience.
The Justice Department and 16 states, plus the District of Columbia, file a challenge to the reach and influence of Apple, arguing that the company has used anticompetitive tactics to keep customers reliant on their iPhones.
Read more › Live Nation Entertainment, the concert giant that owns Ticketmaster, stands accused of illegally maintaining a monopoly in the live entertainment industry. The D.O.J. said Ticketmaster provided exclusive ticketing contracts with concert venues, which helped Live Nation shore up its dominance, depriving consumers of better prices and options.
The Justice Department, joined by 29 states and the District of Columbia, accuses Live Nation of leveraging its sprawling empire to dominate the live music industry by locking venues into exclusive ticketing contracts, pressuring artists to use its services and threatening its rivals with financial retribution.
Read more › A merger between JetBlue and Spirit, which would have created the fifth-largest airline in the United States, was blocked by a federal judge after a D.O.J. challenge. Government lawyers argued that smaller, low-cost airlines like Spirit helped reduce fares and that allowing the company to be acquired by JetBlue, which tends to charge higher prices than Spirit, would have hurt consumers.
JetBlue and Spirit announce that they will not seek to overturn a court ruling that blocked their planned $3.8 billion merger.
Read more › In a 109-page ruling siding with the government, the judge in the case says the merger would “likely incentivize JetBlue further to abandon its roots as a maverick, low-cost carrier.”
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The Justice Department files a lawsuit seeking to stop JetBlue Airways from buying Spirit Airlines, arguing that the $3.8 billion deal would reduce competition.
Read more › A lawsuit filed by the F.T.C. and 17 states against Amazon accused the retail behemoth of squeezing merchants and favoring its own competing brands and services over third-party sellers. A trial date is set for 2026.
Amazon asks the court to dismiss the suit, arguing that the F.T.C. failed to identify the harm consumers were experiencing. It says the agency confused “common retail practices” with monopolistic behavior.
The F.T.C. and 17 states sue Amazon, contending its online store and merchant services illegally stifle competition. The lawsuit that raises the possibility of altering the company’s structure.
Read more › The F.T.C. sued to block Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which, if allowed to proceed, would be the largest consumer tech acquisition since AOL bought Time Warner more than two decades ago. The case follows scrutiny of the deal by regulators in Europe. Microsoft makes the consoles and platforms on which Activision’s games are played, and the merger of two companies that don’t directly compete is known as a vertical merger. Cases against vertical mergers have traditionally been difficult to win.
Microsoft says it has closed its deal with Activision Blizzard, signaling that the tech industry’s giants are still free to use their cash hoards to get even bigger.
Read more › In a 53-page decision, a judge says the F.T.C. has failed to show the merger would result in a substantial reduction in competition that would harm consumers.
Read more › The F.T.C. seeks a preliminary injunction to bar Microsoft from completing the deal before the F.T.C. has the chance to argue the case in its internal court. Microsoft argues a delay would essentially be killing the deal anyway.
Read more › In its suit, the F.T.C. says Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard would harm consumers because Microsoft could use Activision’s blockbuster games like Call of Duty to lure gamers from rivals.
Read more › The Justice Department sought to block a proposed merger between the largest publisher in the United States and a key rival.
In an order, a judge says that the government has demonstrated that the merger might “substantially” harm competition in the market for U.S. publishing rights to anticipated top-selling books.
Read more › The D.O.J. sued to block UnitedHealth Group’s $13 billion acquisition of health technology company Change Healthcare, arguing that a deal would give UnitedHealth sensitive data that it could wield against its competitors in the insurance business.
After a trial over the summer, a judge says in a 58-page memo that UnitedHealth’s incentives to protect customer data as it grows its businesses outweigh motivations to misuse the information.
In a lawsuit, the Justice Department argues UnitedHealth Group’s deal to acquire Change Healthcare, a health technology company, would give the giant insurer access to sensitive data that it could wield against its competitors.
Read more ›
new video loaded: The U.S. Is Mining for Uranium
September 23, 2024
Miners at Pinyon Plain uranium mine, Arizona.
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new video loaded: Federal Reserve Cuts Interest Rates for the First Time in Four Years
transcript
transcript
Federal Reserve Cuts Interest Rates for the First Time in Four Years
Jerome H. Powell, the Fed chair, said that the central bank would take future interest rate cuts “meeting by meeting” after lowering rates by a half percentage point, an unusually large move.
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Today, the Federal Open Market Committee decided to reduce the degree of policy restraint by lowering our policy interest rate by a half percentage point. Our patient approach over the past year has paid dividends. Inflation is now much closer to our objective, and we have gained greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward 2 percent. We’re going to take it meeting by meeting. As I mentioned, there’s no sense that the committee feels it’s in a rush to do this. We made a good, strong start to this, and that’s really, frankly, a sign of our confidence — confidence that inflation is coming down.
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