Taxes on AI and on people who work

I have been reading with interest different articles about the taxes that are charged to Artificial Intelligence (AI) compared to those that apply to working people. And the truth is that it is worth thinking a little about it.

When taxes were established, AI did not exist and therefore was not taken into account. Consequently, governments established taxes on companies on the wages of workers paid by these companies.

With different proportions of surcharges in almost all countries of the world something similar happens.

In short, robots first appeared in the automation process and more recently AI. In both cases they are “productive investments” that increase the response capacity of companies to remain competitive in the market.

And when companies costs are analyzed, workers wages have added taxes, but productive investments do not. And under certain conditions companies can get tax exemptions for these investments to improve their productivity.

Therefore it is very clear that for a company it is more economically profitable to invest in AI (or a robot) than in people, because in the long run it will pay less taxes, and therefore its operating costs will be lower and therefore it will increase its Benefits.

And since AI does not pay taxes, taking the situation to the extreme, if companies only had “machines” instead of people, they would pay much less taxes and the government would have less income to support social services.

In the current times when automation, driven by AI, increases by leaps and bounds in all areas of companies, it seems the time to rethink the tax system of the same and not to penalize people, but rather the opposite.

Therefore, we should try to defend people without harming companies, because in the end it is people who make up our society.

In the recent past, you have heard some experienced voices saying that we could put a “tax” on robots, and the like, which would deserve to be considered in the broad sense including AI.

I am clear that we must take advantage of technologies to the extent that they can provide us, but we must also count on people and try to achieve a society that is as fair as possible.

These things are not easy, but that’s not a reason we have to stop trying.