United Kingdom: Artificial intelligence tracks major tax evaders

We're familiar with artificial intelligence used to power chatbots, create images, predict illnesses, and "drive" autonomous vehicles. But less is known about its applications and its formidable effectiveness in combating major tax fraud.

This is how we learned that the United Kingdom had recently stepped up its fight against tax fraud by relying on artificial intelligence (AI). British authorities were able to recover a record amount for the 2023/2024 tax year, uncovering £1.5 billion (approximately €1.8 billion) in undeclared assets, more than double the previous year, writes Le Monde.

These results were achieved using an AI tool called Connect. This system is capable of cross-referencing 55 billion data points from over 30 different sources: banks, real estate agencies, airlines, social media, and credit card spending. Connect screens for inconsistencies or signs of fraud among wealthy taxpayers and medium-sized businesses.

AI thus makes it possible to more effectively target suspicious cases and optimize investigations, especially in complex and international cases. In the United Kingdom, the revenue shortfall attributed to tax fraud still represented £39.8 billion in 2022-2023. From a political perspective, for Keir Starmer's government, recovering such large amounts without having to raise taxes is obviously a real boon.

The case of Bernie Ecclestone, the former Formula 1 boss, is a prime example of the effectiveness of this new strategy: he was sentenced to a 17-month suspended prison sentence for "forgetting" to declare more than £400 million invested abroad and was forced to pay a record fine, following a major tax investigation made possible by these technologies.

As we can see, even the wealthiest and most well-informed fraudsters are no longer immune to the new power embodied by this technology.

(MH with LM - Sources : Le Monde, RTBF, L'Equipe - Picture : Unsplash)