Rethinking Taxation in an Automated Economy

The increasing integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and automation into modern economic systems poses a significant structural challenge to traditional taxation frameworks. These systems, designed around the primacy of human labor and territorially bounded capital, are increasingly unable to capture the value created by autonomous and semi-autonomous technologies. While the idea of a "robot tax" has gained attention as a potential solution, this paper argues that this approach fails to address the core issue. The problem is not simply the absence of a taxable subject, but the inadequacy of existing tax categories in reflecting new forms of value creation. Drawing on economic theory and emerging global policy discussions, this paper re-conceptualizes taxation in an automated economy as a question of attribution, distribution, and institutional design. The paper establishes the theoretical and economic foundations of this argument by exploring how automation disrupts traditional assumptions about labor, capital, and value.