Debate in the coalition about tax on sales through AI

Debate in the coalition Is there an AI tax coming in Germany? As of: October 29, 2026 • 9:12 p.m

In Germany there could be a tax on sales generated with artificial intelligence. Family Minister Prien also spoke out in favor of this. This is intended to respond to changes in the world of work - for example job losses.

The black-red coalition is discussing a tax on sales generated by artificial intelligence (AI). The deputy CDU leader and Federal Family Minister Karin Prien told Stern magazine: If value creation essentially works through AI, it must also be taxed - "there is no other way." There needs to be a discussion about “what artificial intelligence and the change in the world of work mean for young people and their careers,” said Prien.

Federal Digital Minister Karsten Wildberger (CDU) had previously advocated the introduction of such an AI tax - he was primarily concerned with expected job losses and fundamental upheavals in the world of work. “We have to tax the extremely high sales of this technology, and we can use the money to finance the conversion,” he said in the Tagesspiegel.

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However, Wildberger later rowed back a bit at RTL/ntv: First, Germany had to take advantage of the economic opportunities offered by the technology. “Let’s let the growth come first,” he said.

Economics Minister Katherina Reiche (CDU) made a similar statement at an event organized by the newspaper Die Welt: “Let’s introduce AI first before we tax it.” If something is going on, you can also talk about taxes. Federal Chancellor and CDU party leader Friedrich Merz has so far been rather critical of AI taxation.

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The coalition partner is apparently open to it. In September, the SPD parliamentary group stated in a resolution paper that technical progress should not make people poor "because machines have so far taken on well-paid tasks and employees are only left with low-paying jobs." They want to work for collective bargaining and “fair taxation of profits”. However, there are no concrete plans in the government coalition yet.

A push is also coming from the USA: Microsoft founder Bill Gates has long been calling for robots and AI to be taxed. In this way he wants to reduce the incentive to replace people with machines. He also fears that AI could lead to massive job losses.

With information from Jan Zimmermann, ARD Capital Studio

This topic in the program: tagesschau.de | Is there an AI tax coming soon? Debate in the coalition | Oct 29, 2026 | 8:01 p.m