Most people use the Internet to get news, play electronic games, or send e-mail.
In Brazil, they also use it to file tax returns. That figure is borne out by Brazil's Federal Revenue Secretariat, which reports that nearly three million companies and individuals filed their returns via the Internet last year, up from around 700,000 in 1997. That makes Brazil a world leader in this area, and it illustrates the remarkable effect that investments in information technology are having on tax collection and administration in some Latin American and Caribbean countries. Without adequate information systems, officials found it difficult to determine who was and who wasn't paying taxes. In a few short years, for example, Mexico's Revenue Administration Service went from almost no automation to a system of 122 computing centers that networked to 20,000 terminals, or a ratio of less than two employees per computer.