State of use of AI tax systems
In comparison to its Western European homologues, and particularly neighbouring Spain, the Portuguese Tax and Customs Authorities (AT) can be regarded as a late adopter of AI.
The first mention of the use of machine-learning by the AT dates back to 2021.
What functions are performed with AI?
Publicly-available sources reveal that at least two functions are performed with machine-learning:
- Webscraping: the system automatically collects data from the HTLM scripts of websites, and matches it with data present in the data warehouse of the AT. Reportedly, webscraping is primarily used to detect taxpayers on e-sharing apps who do not declare rental income.
- External risk-management (risk-scoring): the system predicts the risk of non-compliance for each individual taxpayer, and pre-select certain taxpayers for audit.
What data is processed by these systems?
The AT did not specify the data processed by these AI systems.
Are these systems regulated to specific norms?
The use of AI systems by the AT is not subject to specific ad hoc norms.
