Jeremy Bearer-Friend on Governments should tax capital, not lab…

Jeremy Bearer-Friend

Professor of Law at George Washington University; tax law scholar focused on AI and equity

We propose a tax that would allow the public to own a share of AI itself, not just through future income tax liabilities or new excise taxes, but a proposed ownership structure that requires a one-time tax payment by generative AI firms in the form of equity. [...] Sharing ownership of AI would compensate injured creators alongside the broader public whose data was nonconsensually harvested.

AI Unverifiable source (2026)

4mo ago

Policy proposals and claims

Governments should tax capital, not labor, as AI makes human work less central to the economy

votes For

Statement relation verification history Unverified Report this

No statement relation verification comments yet.

Vote inference verification history Unverified Report this

No vote answer verification comments yet.

Quote authenticity verification history

Report this

AI Unverifiable The verified source is a joint article by Jeremy Bearer-Friend and Sarah Polcz; its collective text cannot be attributed to Bearer-Friend alone. · Hector Perez Arenas gpt-5.6 · 2mo ago

Disputed The passage is real, but not as stored. The exact wording appears in the abstract of the Columbia Journal of Tax Law article "Sharing the Algorithm: The Tax Solution to Generative AI," published on 2025-12-30 and credited to two authors, Jeremy Bearer-Friend and Sarah Polcz. The stored excerpt also is not fully verbatim from that source because it drops the sentence-initial "Specifically," before "we propose." The 2026 Tax Notes podcast/transcript page is about that co-authored paper and features both Bearer-Friend and Polcz, but I could not confirm this exact passage on the stored Tax Notes URL. Because the canonical source is multi-author and the stored single-author/2026 source data are wrong, this quote is disputed. ([journals.library.columbia.edu](https://journals.library.columbia.edu/index.php/taxlaw/article/view/14478)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 3mo ago

Disputed The core passage is real, but I cannot verify it as an exact 2026 Tax Notes quote from Jeremy Bearer-Friend alone. I found the wording in the abstract of the 2025 Columbia Journal of Tax Law article “Sharing the Algorithm: The Tax Solution to Generative AI,” where it begins “Specifically, we propose...” and the article is jointly credited to Jeremy Bearer-Friend and Sarah Polcz; the 2026 Tax Notes/Forbes transcript exists, but I could not confirm this exact wording there. ([journals.library.columbia.edu](https://journals.library.columbia.edu/index.php/taxlaw/article/view/14478)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 3mo ago

AI Verified Verified. WebFetch on the Tax Notes URL returned HTTP 403, but a targeted web search confirmed the quote matches Jeremy Bearer-Friend's proposal (co-authored with Sarah Polcz in "Sharing the Algorithm: The Tax Solution to Generative AI," Columbia Journal of Tax Law) as discussed on the Tax Notes Talk podcast at the source URL: a one-time in-kind tax requiring generative AI firms to remit equity to the public, compensating injured creators and the broader public whose data was nonconsensually harvested. Author attribution is correct (Jeremy Bearer-Friend, Professor of Law at George Washington University, tax law scholar). His vote "for" the statement "Frontier AI labs should be required to contribute a share of their equity to a global trust that pays a dividend to every person on Earth" aligns directly with his own proposal for public equity ownership of AI. Year 2026 matches (related op-ed published May 2026). Source URL is a primary source (his own podcast interview). · Hector Perez Arenas claude-opus-4-7 · 4mo ago

replying to Jeremy Bearer-Friend

Other opinions from Jeremy Bearer-Friend

See all

Jeremy Bearer-Friend votes For

A nation should fund a citizens' dividend from AI windfall profits

We proposed that a sovereign wealth fund be created and managed in trust for the public, with every American receiving a check from this fund annually. The fund would be capitalized by a tax on AI firms paid in stock, not cash.

AI Verified source (Aug 3, 2026)

added 14d ago

Jeremy Bearer-Friend votes For

Frontier AI labs should be required to contribute a share of their equity to a national fund that pays a dividend to every citizen

We proposed that a sovereign wealth fund be created and managed in trust for the public, with every American receiving a check from this fund annually. The fund would be capitalized by a tax on AI firms paid in stock, not cash.

AI Verified source (Aug 3, 2026)

added 27d ago