Directors Say Talks to Tax Artificial Intelligence Are Premature

Tax directors at multinational companies believe it’s too soon to discuss taxing artificial intelligence, and policymakers must wait to see how the nascent technology develops.

“Throughout time, we haven’t actually had special taxes for efficiency,” Daniel Goff, corporate vice president, worldwide tax and customs at Microsoft Corp., said Tuesday.

Goff, who spoke on a panel chaired by the International Fiscal Association, gave the example that there wasn’t a specific tax on other historical innovations that improved productivity, such as tractors or bulldozers.

The purported impact that AI will have on the labor force—alongside the technology’s anticipated effect on ...