Online store starts taxing Internet Explorer 7 users

It’s about time someone took a stand against archaic browsers. Online gadget store Kogan decided enough was enough, and has started taxing customers who use Internet Explorer 7.

According to the store’s official blog, visitors who use the “antique browser” to navigate the shop will be taxed 6.8% on all their purchases. They’ll also be met with a delightful pop up box, approved by the international authority on all things web, the “Department of Internet Justice”, warning them to upgrade to Chrome, Firefox, Safari or Opera, or face the penalties.

Why the tax? Well, the developers spent so much time trying to make the website look “normal” in IE7, that they’ve decided it’s just not worth the headache. The exact tax rate wasn’t just a random calculation either — it’s 0.1% for every month that the browser has been available (five and a half years). No one will actually get taxed, though — the surcharges are displayed in your account until the final check-out stages, then removed. But the store obviously hopes that the move is at least one small step forward in the battle to “eradicate the world of the pain in the rear that is IE7″.

Even though Google Chrome officially beat out Internet Explorer last month to claim the title of ‘world’s most popular browser’, a lot of internet users still insist on using Windows’ default program. Kogan’s ‘tax’ doesn’t extend to all IE users though: customers using newer versions won’t be penalised.