The Chicago SMART Tax – Pathways to Recouping Big Tech Tax Avoidance

Executive Summary

The global economy is increasingly characterized by a digital enclosure movement, wherein the social interactions, data, and attention of billions are commodified by a handful of technology conglomerates – like Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Netflix, etc.. While these mega-entities generate trillions of dollars in value, they have historically operated with a level of fiscal impunity that undermines the social contract of taxation and leaves government without adequate resources. 

The passage and implementation of the Social Media Amusement and Responsibility Tax (SMART) in Chicago represents a pivotal shift in this dynamic—a first-of-its-kind mechanism designed to compel Big Tech to reinvest in the very communities from which it draws its wealth. The Institute for the Public Good, led by Ishan Daya and Julie Dworkin, built an initial proposal of the social media tax, which the City of Chicago Mayor’s Office used to inform the current version of the SMART (amusement) tax. The tax revenue collected will be invested in funding the pillars of the Treatment Not Trauma campaign – continued re-opening and full funding of public mental health centers in Chicago and the expansion of the non-police crisis response for behavioral and social needs crises.  

This progressive tax measure was adopted by a grassroots campaign – Babies Over Billionaires – led by the People’s Unity Platform, which argued that the city’s $1.2 billion budget deficit was the result of decades of fiscal mismanagement by mayors previous, corporate welfare, and a failure to enact progressive revenue options. This campaign demand was ultimately adopted and adapted by Mayor Johnson’s administration as part of the "Protecting Chicago" budget proposal for 2026.

This report examines the economic dimensions of the SMART tax and explores this new revenue source in the broader struggle for economic equity, public health, and the expansion of the public good.

Read the entire report here.