In the future taxation revenue may be down due to less manual workers and more automated robotics taking over blue collar jobs. Inevitably more people will be out of work and there will be greater dependancy on government services with potentially less revenue coming in from employee PAYE contributions. I propose to offset some of the lost revenue that the government introduce a automation taxed, where robots would be taxed in a similar fashion to humans according to the wage standards of the jobs they have replaced. Productivity will increase but revenue will not be as greatly affected. I’m putting this idea forward for submission as I believe it is critical that we start this conversation sooner rather than later.
Hi Danny, thanks for your suggestion. The Board has decided that this idea would require a substantive change to tax policy and is therefore outside the scope of Sounding Board.
However, the Board notes recent commentary (see https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/new-levy-on-digital-giants-sways-crossbench-on-tax-cuts-20180514-p4zf7b.html) on the topic of digital taxation and the Board is interested in the views of yourself or other members of the Sounding Board community in relation to this topic
Any comments or suggestions would be welcome.
New levy on digital giants sways crossbench on tax cuts A new tax on digital giants like Google, Facebook and Uber has won support from crucial Senate crossbenchers.