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Using Foursquare to Detect Tax Evasion / Money Laundering

diegobasch.com

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Re: Using Foursquare to Detect Tax Evasion / Money Laundering

#31

Post by DanielBMarkham »

heretohelp wrote: post #28
DanielBMarkham wrote: post #19

You can slice this the other way also: using check-ins for a particular person to track where they visit. If their reported income is low, yet they check-in regularly at expensive restaurants and travel the globe, you've probably got a tax cheat in there somewhere or another. Seriously, I have no idea why we discuss some of this stuff. It only serves to give ammo for other people to monitor and control us in ways the…

I had the same reaction, this stuff makes me queasy. I don't like tax cheats, but a tax cheat isn't going to imprison me for having the wrong opinions.

We have to remember that our set of laws was designed with a huge amount of slack. You can have a speed limit that nobody follows because hardly anybody gets caught. Once you start catching everybody, you've changed the social dynamic just by following the rules more strictly.

This kind of thing is a huge deal. For decades politicians have spit-balled new laws that, even though passed, don't amount to squat because nobody can figure them out or enforce them.

The more we automate this stuff the more miserable all of our lives will be. This kind of thing is not good at all. Can emphasize enough how these technological developments are a terrible evil (and I love technology)

Re: Using Foursquare to Detect Tax Evasion / Money Laundering

#32

Post by rmc »

staunch wrote: post #10

Related question. Am I wrong in assuming virtually every business that has a "cash only" policy does so to facilitate tax fraud? I know there are legit exceptions, but isn't this the main reason they do it?

Credit card fees cost money and credit card companies don't let retailers charge a higher price for credit card transactions, so the retailer has to get the hit.

However if your plumber or tradesperson gives a lower price for cash, then that's probably tax evasion.

Re: Using Foursquare to Detect Tax Evasion / Money Laundering

#33

Post by rdtsc »

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #19

You can slice this the other way also: using check-ins for a particular person to track where they visit. If their reported income is low, yet they check-in regularly at expensive restaurants and travel the globe, you've probably got a tax cheat in there somewhere or another. Seriously, I have no idea why we discuss some of this stuff. It only serves to give ammo for other people to monitor and control us in ways the…

I can see IRS building a fun little crawler. They already know everyone's name, address, place of employment, age, marital status, salary, the church they donate to. It would be interesting (and scary) to try to identify potential auditing target based on these check-ins and other stuff (from say, Facebook posts, twitter).

Re: Using Foursquare to Detect Tax Evasion / Money Laundering

#34

Post by rmc »

mc32 wrote: post #14
bluetidepro wrote: post #2

I highly doubt the government would trust a service like that for such problems or even waste their valuable time. I'm sure they have much more efficient ways of detecting this then trying to sift through that junk. It's also very easy to manipulate check-in's (Foursquare specifically), in respect to checking into locations when you don't actually have to be there, physically. And as far as Facebook goes, you can che…

I've heard, no first-person knowledge here, that upon suspecting a business, taxation agencies are not unknown to send out a person with a clicker to tally patronage during spcific time periods and see if that lines up with their expectations and what the business reports. As others have said, this could be one of many signals to use in determining who to follow up on.

I've heard of tax inspectors counting the cars parked outside small businesses to get an idea of number of customers.

Re: Using Foursquare to Detect Tax Evasion / Money Laundering

#35

Post by jtbigwoo »

larrys wrote: post #21
fleitz wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cash can be spent immediately, CC receipts not so much. In the case of CC you'll get a payment 30 days later, so in VISA vs. cash, you're not getting the interest on the money, if you need to use the money you'll have to pay your bank interest, and you'll pay a processing fee on top of it. About the only advantage CC has is that it's difficult for employees to steal from the register, so instead they steal the magstr…

"In the case of VISA you'll get a payment 30 days later, so in VISA vs. cash, you're not getting the interest on the money," Wha? I get my Visa money within a day or two.

Amex and Diner's Club were the bad ones in my experience--regularly taking 30+ days to pay.

Re: Using Foursquare to Detect Tax Evasion / Money Laundering

#36

Post by bigfrakkinghero »

This seems to me like it would be an interesting hypothesis for a an experiment, but a bad idea to suggest/encourage in any "real" (IRS) capacity. Academically the idea is interesting, but the thought of this being actually implemented is a little scary.

... but you could say the same thing about a lot of other areas of research, too. Face detection at Facebook's scale, for example: really cool academically and potentially really scary in application.

Re: Using Foursquare to Detect Tax Evasion / Money Laundering

#37

Post by learc83 »

larrys wrote: post #25
ChuckMcM wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You would be wrong in that assumption. Some businesses don't like paying the additional fees charged by banks when you use a credit card, they can be up to 8.5% according to a friend of mine that runs a locksmith. He would rather give 8.5% more service to the folks who come in the door. He has an ATM on site that will let you get a cash advance on your credit card if all you brought was plastic. It has a $3 transacti…

Fees are nowhere 8.5% I've never heard that and have had a merchant account since the 80's at several businesses. Not taking credit cards will cost you business in a retail location.

The actual fee charged could be close to 8.5% if you are charging mostly small transactions b/c they usually charge a percent plus a flat $0.30 fee.

Say you charge the customer $5: 2% + $0.30 is $0.40--8% of the total.

Re: Using Foursquare to Detect Tax Evasion / Money Laundering

#38

Post by [deleted] »

arscan wrote: post #8

Perhaps a slightly more realistic usage would be for financial analysts to use the data as a (weak) signal as to whether or not companies are on track to meet their earnings expectations. I believe that they have gone as far as to buy satellite pictures of parking lots (empty/full) to try to gauge how well big retailers are doing...

[deleted]

Re: Using Foursquare to Detect Tax Evasion / Money Laundering

#39

Post by jonknee »

larrys wrote: post #25
ChuckMcM wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You would be wrong in that assumption. Some businesses don't like paying the additional fees charged by banks when you use a credit card, they can be up to 8.5% according to a friend of mine that runs a locksmith. He would rather give 8.5% more service to the folks who come in the door. He has an ATM on site that will let you get a cash advance on your credit card if all you brought was plastic. It has a $3 transacti…

Fees are nowhere 8.5% I've never heard that and have had a merchant account since the 80's at several businesses. Not taking credit cards will cost you business in a retail location.

It depends on your transaction amount, the fees can easily exceed 8.5%. When I had no change the other day and paid 45 cents at a parking station with a credit card I can guarantee the fees were more than 8.5%.
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