The first reaction of most people to a title like Tax and Robotics is probably bewilderment. Are there even enough robot-specific regulations to fill a book? The easy answer is no – quite the opposite. And yet no one can remain indifferent to the subject discussed here. In fact, recent years have witnessed repeated expressions of society’s concern about this issue. It therefore needs to be addressed in order to discover and confirm fundamental principles that will ensure the development of a legal framework consistent with the rule of law in our state.
It is quite significant that the interdisciplinary research which inspired this book shares the priorities set by the European Commission and the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities on two competitive projects: inbots csa, g.a. No. 780073 (
This book by Álvaro Falcón Pulido grew out of the PhD dissertation he successfully defended in the Department of Commercial, Financial, and Tax Law at the Law School of the Complutense University of Madrid, which received the highest possible score and on which I had the pleasure of acting as doctoral advisor. His fiscal construction has the dual merit of diligently adding to and enriching the contributions of those branches of law which first addressed the potential risks and opportunities of robotization and, at the same time, judiciously engaging in the lively debates that have originated in different non-legal disciplines (particularly ethics and economics). I derived true intellectual pleasure and great satisfaction from supervising this dissertation and discovering the valuable insights of its author, whom I wholeheartedly encourage to continue in this direction and imagine new ways of achieving what is right and necessary in our increasingly divided and polarized society.
This critical approach, grounded in common law, methodically surveys certain existing categories in financial and tax law and, in some cases, proposes amendments or improvements. The seasoned researcher skillfully applies useful concepts, even drawing on Roman and civil law, to his vision of an improved tax and social security system. His remarkable study opens up new horizons while simultaneously blazing new trails which he invites us to explore. He has approached this task in a thought-provoking way, offering clear explanations of a patently complex phenomenon, and the result is an eminently readable book written in plain, easily comprehensible language.
Working from premises firmly established by case law, Dr. Falcón Pulido dares to sketch the tentative legal contours of potentially useful taxation tools
We are now entering an age when taxation affects the decision to roll out robotics, artificial intelligence, and related technology, and these in turn overtly influence the development of taxation itself. Naturally, this has caught the attention of experts in the fields of tax and labor law in the context of national and international organizations. For proof we need look no further than the collective work Interactive Robotics: Legal, Ethical, Social and Economic Aspects, published by Springer in 2021, to which Álvaro Falcón contributed a chapter, or an article of his that previously appeared in Revista Técnica Tributaria of the Asociación Española de Asesores Fiscales.
This volume comes at a particularly opportune moment, when different fields and industries are eager to find better uses for robotic tools, as it points out various strategies that are directly or indirectly related to smart automation (such as taxing transactions involving data). At times boldly and at others more discreetly, Dr. Falcón Pulido gives his informed opinion, refined in the forges of time and experience. Thanks to his perseverance and dedication to his chosen subject, he has managed to identify the principal problems and propose interesting solutions. The solidity of his legal arguments is a welcome contrast to certain fickle political initiatives on the international stage.
By offering a vision that ranges from the origins of the technological and legislative phenomenon to its foreseeable future developments, the author sensibly identifies points of overlap between conflicting interests, given the legal uncertainty generated by differences in the pace at which technological advances are implemented (as is the case of the responsible use of tax incentives to promote innovation in robotics). In short, thanks to the solid editorial commitment of Tirant lo Blanch, readers now have before them an illuminating text that clearly lays out the different legislative and regulatory options in this field, one destined to become an invaluable source in light of the intensity and scope of the incipient robotization processes now underway in Spain, the European Union, and the rest of the world.
María Amparo Grau Ruiz
Professor of Financial and Tax Law
Universidad Complutense de Madrid