Bill Gates says companies replacing workers with robots should pay the same payroll taxes

[HiggsField84]

Bill Gates has renewed his call for a robot tax. In an interview with Ezra Klein of the New York Times, he said companies that replace human workers with robots or AI should pay the same FICA taxes that would have been paid on the human's wages. FICA is the US payroll tax that funds Social Security and Medicare. Workers pay 7.65 percent of their wages, with employers matching that amount

His idea is to define a unit of labour that is taxed the same way whether a person or a machine does the work. That would replace tax revenue lost when jobs disappear, help fund a stronger safety net and reduce the financial incentive to swap people for machines. He put it plainly, saying that just because the economic signals say it would be cheaper to use AI does not mean society has to do that

This is not a new idea from Gates. He first suggested taxing robots back in 2017, long before ChatGPT. At the time, he proposed using the money to retrain people for jobs that need a human touch, such as caring for older people and supporting children with special educational needs. With AI now moving much faster, the idea has new relevance

The article mentions around 130,000 AI related job losses in the US since January 2025, and some local governments are exploring fee based approaches to automation. It also ties into what the UK's AI minister said last week about planning for unprecedented job losses, including possibly redesigning tax so keeping workers is more attractive. And the Harvard experts we discussed think significant displacement is likely within two decades

The obvious problem is definition. What counts as a robot, and how do you measure how much human work a piece of software replaced? Critics also argue it could slow productivity and push companies to move automation abroad. It touches on tax policy, so please keep the discussion civil. Is a robot tax a sensible idea, or unworkable in practice?

Bill Gates says companies that replace human labor with robots should have to pay the same FICA taxeswww.businessinsider.com

[LazySentinel]

Companies would just move automated work to countries without the tax. Data centres can be anywhere. Unless it is agreed internationally, it would simply push investment abroad. Tax competition between countries is already fierce. This would add fuel to it

[Dave]

Taxing companies for being efficient feels backwards to me. Productivity gains are what raise living standards over time

The tractor replaced farm workers and nobody taxed it. Society adjusted and became richer