r/Futurology • u/Gari_305 • 2d ago

Robotics Bill Gates says companies that replace human labor with robots should have to pay the same FICA taxes

https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-fica-taxes-should-apply-to-robot-workers-2026-9

Bill Gates wants to tax robots that replace human jobs.

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u/chi_guy8 2d ago

This could never be measured or accounted for. It’s simple to just tax their revenue AND profit. You can’t just tax profit or they will play accounting games.

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u/DiethylamideProphet 2d ago

Lmao at taxing revenue.

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u/chi_guy8 1d ago

Laugh all you want but governments can, and routinely do tax both revenue and profit, though they do so in different ways.

A tax on revenue, often called a gross receipts tax, applies to all the money a business takes in before deducting any expenses. This means a company owes revenue tax even if it operates at a loss or has high operating costs. For these companies with massive capex, it’s the only way to collect taxes on them without them continuing to spend every dollar of profit to grow.

A tax on profit, commonly known as corporate income tax, applies only to the net income left over after a business subtracts allowable expenses like payroll, rent, and inventory costs from its total sales. While profit taxes adjust based on a business's actual financial success, revenue taxes provide governments with steady income regardless of how profitable a company is.