A $26 Trillion Pot of Digital Gold Eyed by Cash-Hungry Nations

When Indonesia looked for new ways to fund government spending on coronavirus relief last month, the world’s fourth most-populous nation homed in on a driver of the economy that was still healthy: the internet.

“We decided to tax digital companies with an electronic transaction tax because their sales have soared amid the Covid-19 outbreak,” Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said at a press conference. Citing services like Zoom and Netflix, she said “their economic activities are huge.”

And who could blame her. Fiscal authorities staring at gaping budget shortfalls from Canberra to Copenhagen are looking for any form of commerce ...