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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.
Global Taxes
Articles
Access to the Network Society - Who is in the Loop and on the Map (1999)
Paragraph referring to the implementation of an email tax in the UNDP Human Development Report.
Net Gains Not for All (July 1999)
Irish Times article on the Human Development Report's proposed Email Tax, comparing it with the implementation of community access points in developing countries.
UN's 1999 Human Development Report Raises International Tax Proposal (July 21, 1999)
A letter from the US State Department has Mark Malloch Brown running scared. As a result, the UNDP distances itself from an innovative revenue-raising proposal mentioned in its Human Development Report.
UN Distances Itself from Report Recommending Email Tax (July 16, 1999)
Associated Press article on the UN's statement about the Human Development Report's suggestion for an email tax. In response to US criticism, the UN made clear that the Report does not represent the UN.
UN Proposes Global Email Tax (July 13, 1999)
Wired Digital article on the email tax debate with quotes from Kate Raworth, co-author of the Human Development Report, on the merits of the email tax.
Reducing the Gap Between the Knows and the Know-Nots (July 12, 1999)
UNDP report on the Human Development Report's recommendation for an email tax to expand the governance over the internet.
