Taxation of Robots

Scientists, practitioners, and policymakers have been discussing the taxation of robots and Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems for many years without any real action being taken by any jurisdiction, with very few exceptions. The wide range of targeted proposals that have been presented so far could be difficult to implement, besides the fact that most of them violate commonly accepted principles of tax policy, such as neutrality, simplicity/certainty, efficiency, effectiveness, and fairness, as well as flexibility. This paper will analyze the advantages and disadvantages of proposals related to the taxation of robots. In this paper, the authors will present several key considerations (de lege ferenda) related to the taxation of robots: a) clarify the legal relationship between humans and robots, b) determine the most suitable type of tax (taxing robots as (separate) “persons” for Income Tax Law Purposes, taxing the use of robots for redistribution through tax neutrality and robot tax as a Business Presumptive Tax) and c) who bears tax liability for robot tax?