[1] Internet taxes prominently target companies including Facebook, Google, Amazon, Airbnb, Uber.
[2] As of 2019, several countries have passed various Internet tax laws including France[3] and Italy[4] (at 3%) as well as the Czech Republic (7%).
Ten states (which were grandfathered under the Internet Tax Freedom Act as part of a political compromise) are allowed to provide for some manner of taxation on ISP charges.
This taxation is not prohibited by federal statute, but rather by a series of U.S. Supreme Court decisions including Quill Corp. v. North Dakota (1992).
Because of this constitutional prohibition on collecting sales tax from so-called "remote" sales on the Internet, the issue of local jurisdictions taxing goods and services purchased from out of state by their residents using the Internet has not yet raised the conceptual questions discussed below.
But in general, there is no simple way to determine location, owing largely to the Internet's lack of boundaries.
However, if access requires downloading of user software, some U.S. states (e.g., Massachusetts) may deem that to be a "taxable sale" of goods for their residents.
[11] On May 30, 2018, the Ugandan parliament passed The Excise Duty Amendment Bill which proposed that; “Over the top services" are defined as the transmission or receipt of voice or messages over the internet protocol network and includes access to virtual private networks but does not include educational or research sites prescribed by the Minister by notice in the Gazette.
The 1998 Internet Tax Freedom Act was authored by Representative Christopher Cox, R-CA and Senator Ron Wyden, D-OR and signed into law on October 21, 1998 by President Bill Clinton in an effort to promote and preserve the commercial potential of the Internet.
The 1998 bill had been extended three times by the United States Congress since its original enactment and was last renewed on October 30, 2007 for 7 years.
[14] On Feb. 11, 2016 the U.S. Congress passed the Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act and sent the bill to President Barack Obama for his expected signature.
With this new advance tax which can be reclaimed at the time of filing of returns 14% of the bill amount is supposed to get deducted on internet usage across Pakistan.
[22][5] French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced on January 8, 2008, that he would propose taxing the Internet as a way to fund the country's state-owned television stations.
[23] The proposition came as part of a broader plan for the French audiovisual network; the plan also included provisions such as the "total suppression of advertising on public channels" whose funding would then be aided by "an infinitesimal sales tax on new communication methods, like Internet access and mobile telephony.".