Politics

Post boss proposes robot tax

Deutsche Post CEO Frank Appel has proposed the levying of a robot tax to boost public budgets. "Work done by people, for example, could be exempted from VAT – with taxation restricted to work performed by robots," Appel informed the press. "It's a proposal that at least merits consideration," he said, pointing out that "groceries also receive preferential treatment when it comes to the levying of VAT." A study by the consulting firm PWC and the Darmstadt-based economic research institute Wifor, however, concludes that the demographic labour shortage in Germany cannot be fully addressed with robots. According to the study, robots will only be able to make up for two million of a potential shortage of four million workers.