Global Taxation, United Nations - Tuesday, January 22, 2008 14:13 - 0 Comments

United Nations Taxation: Bit Tax

This page notes ongoing or proposed changes to the UN tax structure

An email or internet tax, sometimes known as a “bit tax,” seeks to introduce a tax on the amount of data sent through the internet. A person sending 100 emails a day, each containing a 10-kilobyte document, would pay a tax of just 1 cent, according to one proposal. This tax does not seek to discourage use of email (though it would to some degree). Rather, its proponents hope to raise funds that would be spent to narrow the “digital divide” between rich and poor. Revenues would help make email and web access available in poor communities and low-income countries.

The UNDP Human Development Report 1999 mentioned such a tax. UNDP estimated that globally in 1996, such a tax would have yielded $70 billion. Since internet users now frequently send data-rich photos and large documents, transfer rates are far higher than in 1996 and the number of internet users has grown enormously. For these reasons, a tax should be set at a rate well below the one UNDP first proposed. Still, it could produce a large revenue and impact users only modestly.

In 1998, the United States persuaded the OECD countries to impose a moratorium on internet taxation, but the idea continues to stir interest and on February 12, 2002, EU finance ministers approved sales taxes on internet transactions. New technology and changing politics may bring this proposal swiftly forward.