My sister forwarded me this from the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) May 6 2011 Newsletter. Unlike us online marketers, the brick-and-mortar ICSC is in favor of online retailers paying retail sales tax. Sleep with one eye open:
AR: Governor Beebe Signs Affiliate Nexus Bill
Arkansas has become the fifth state to enact affiliate nexus legislation. Amazon has indicated that it will end its affiliate program when the bill takes effect 90 days after the state legislature adjourns.
Affiliate nexus bills would require large online retailers that use an affiliate business model, such as Amazon and Overstock, to collect sales taxes on purchases made by residents in states where the affiliate programs are set up.
New York was the first state to pass this type of legislation, and was followed by Rhode Island and North Carolina. Illinois also signed affiliate nexus legislation into law earlier this year. In every state except New York, Amazon and other online-only retailers ended their affiliate programs, rather than collect the sales taxes for the states.
Affiliate nexus bills have also been introduced in Arizona, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Mexico, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Virginia.
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4 Comments on “States Attempting to Tax Affiliate Marketers in Droves”
For anyone who wants to be fed all the details, warnings, strategies, etc. about nexus and online marketers, subscribe to Diane Kennedy’s Nexus Negotiator.
http://www.nexusnegotiator.com/
She’s very good at what she does.
Dov Gordon
In a turn of events, Colorado’s State House just passed a bill (58-6) that will move on to the state Senate to repeal this law in Colorado. http://www.coloradonewsagency.com/2011/05/05/amazon-tax-on-its-way-out-the-door/ … the tide may be turning.
Amazon is not the bad guy here in my opinion. They are simply forcing the states to come up with a cogent tax collection policy that on-line retailers without a brick and mortar presence in each state (like Amazon) can follow. Either the state governments will work together to do this reasonably, or the federal government will eventually step in.
Didn’t they already prove the states were loosing more money by doing this?
I’ll strike Amazon off of my list of merchants to promote.