Lithuania to turn Google Street View on tax cheats

Lithuanian tax authorities said Thursday they would use the Baltic state's recently launched Google Street View platform to track tax cheats by identifying the real value of property holdings.

"It will help ascertain which property is 'hiding' under the entry recorded in the real-estate register and provide a preliminary assessment of whether the value corresponds to the declared value," Lithuanian deputy state tax inspector Arturas Klerauskas told AFP.

The Google application, which lets users view panoramic street scenes on Google Maps, will also be used to examine buildings which are far from tax offices before deciding if a more thorough investigation is needed, he added.

"This tool might also help identify unregistered real estate," Klerauskas said.

Google Street View was launched in Lithuania a week ago, after Google overcame initial reluctance on the part of the authorities that stemmed from privacy and security concerns.