, Columnist
In Defense of Hungary's Internet Tax
Hungarians have forced their government to soften an Internet tax proposal, but the idea should not be discounted elsewhere.
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Vigorous protests in Hungary against the government's attempt to tax Internet usage seem to support the idea, popular among U.S. legislators, that the Internet is a sacred cow and should be exempt from taxation. In reality, the protests have more to do with Hungarians' fatigue with Prime Minister Viktor Orban's unorthodox approach to taxation. Taxing information consumption is not such a crazy idea.
Orban's government proposed the tax after his Fidesz party triumphed in municipal elections earlier this month, boosting his authoritarian ambitions. Under the draft legislation (since revised), starting next year, Hungarians would have paid 150 forints ($0.62) per gigabyte of data consumed.