Salon.com > Lithuania

Lithuanian tax authorities use Google Maps to track down dodgers

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 17:59:00 +0000

VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) -- As soon as Google Maps Street View was rolled out in Lithuania earlier this year, tax authorities were ready.

Sitting in the comfort of their own offices, inspectors used the free Internet program for a virtual cruise around the streets of some of the Baltic country's big cities, uncovering dozens of alleged tax violations involving housing construction and property sales.

They identified 100 homeowners and 30 construction companies as suspected tax dodgers thanks to Street View, finding homes where they shouldn't be and other suspicious activity, Darius Buta, spokesman for the State Tax Inspectorate, said Wednesday.

"Our inspectors track these buildings on the Internet, and if a violation seems obvious, they visit the sites. This saves lots of time and resources," Buta said.

Lithuanian officials said they were unaware of any other country where revenue collectors had used Google's Street View, saying they didn't draw on anyone else's experience. Still, tax authorities across the world are turning to high-resolution maps, online databases, and social media in a bid to catch out cheats.

Why I wasn’t rooting for the U.S.

Sat, 04 Aug 2012 21:30:00 +0000

With just over five minutes left in the game on Saturday, Lithuanian power forward Paulius Jankunas scored inside to give his team an 84-82 lead over the United States. This wasn’t supposed to be happening. The U.S. team, whose Olympic basketball roster boasts a combined seven NBA championships, four MVP awards and 43 All-Star game appearances, had entered the game as a 34 ½-point favorite, fresh off a record-shattering 83-point dismantling of Nigeria.

The suddenly real possibility of an epic upset got my juices flowing, and I posted this message on Twitter: “There’s nothing more American than pulling for the underdog. Go Lithuania!”

Within a few minutes, two things happened: 1) LeBron and Team USA woke up and reeled off 17 of the next 23 points, grabbing control and averting a humbling defeat; and 2) outraged responses to my tweet began tricking in, with messages like: “Wow. U suck. Plz self deport.” And: “Revoke your US citizenship dumbass.”

Rule-of-law extremism engulfs primitive Eastern Europe

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 10:22:00 +0000

(updated below - Update II)

Lithuania is currently embroiled in a bizarre and deeply confusing political controversy which reveals what happens when a country becomes gripped by extremist ideologies. Evidence has emerged that Lithuanian intelligence agencies allowed secret CIA prisons to be maintained in their country during the Bush era. Just because such prisons would be "illegal" under the so-called "law" of Lithuania and various international conventions to which that nation is a signatory, irresponsible leaders of that country are demanding "investigations" and even possibly legal consequences if it turns out crimes were committed. What kind of a backwards, primitive country would do something like this?

[I]ncreasingly, after years of issuing denials, Lithuania's leaders are no longer ruling out the possibility that the CIA operated a secret prison in this northern European country of 3.5 million people, and that its government will have to deal with the fallout.

Last month, newly elected President Dalia Grybauskaite said she had "indirect suspicions" that the CIA reports might be true, and urged Parliament to investigate more thoroughly.