Using Internet Explorer? You may be taxed for it

Australian entrepreneur Ruslan Kogan is making waves this week after announcing that his company will be implementing the “world’s first Internet Explorer 7 Tax” as a way to make up for the cost of supporting the aging browser. You may not have heard of Kogan, or his company, Kogan.com which manufactures and sells consumer electronics. But the company is on track to do over $100 million in revenue this year.

The site will now add an additional 6.8% tax on anyone using the Internet Explorer 7 browser. They will offer a direct download link to an updated browser any time that the user is faced with paying the extra fee, so users will not be taken by surprise by the interesting tactic to encourage upgrades.

Techcrunch reports:

Kogan said that the reason his business has been able to keep its prices so low (no, he’s not in the mafia) is by using technology and the cloud to keep business processes efficient and streamlined. And when his IT team has to spend way-too-much time making the site appear normal to IE7 users, it could be spending its time improving efficiency in much more valuable, meaningful ways.

Kogan continues:

“It’s not only costing us a huge amount, it’s affecting any business with an online presence, and costing the Internet economy millions.”

Others have jumped on the news, some giving additional ideas to encourage Internet Explorer upgrades, including this tweet:

For those who don’t read HTML or CSS, this tweet basically says that if the site detects that the user is browsing with Internet Explorer 7, change all of the fonts to Comic Sans. A great idea indeed.