Proposals for global tax schemes normally emanate from places like Paris and Brussels. Swiss officials, by contrast, generally have a more sensible attitude – especially since they often are in a position of having to defend Switzerland’s fiscal sovereignty. But as Tax-news.com reports, one Swiss Minister wants a “tax on information” to fund global redistribution:

Swiss Communications Minister Moritz Leuenberger has suggested a ‘tax on information’ to help bridge the digital divide between wealthy countries with good communication infrastructure and poor countries where most of the population have no access to modern communications. Leuenberger revealed his proposal to a United Nations meeting convened to follow up on the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), held jointly in Geneva and Tunis in 2003 and 2005. … Leuenberger surmised that such a tax could be raised on information content which is paid for and computers.