Looks like Amazon will be dropping ALL California affiliates soon

[thevil]

Sorry for your loss

* Calif. Assembly votes 50-18 in favor of bill

* Bill targets online retailers with "physical presence"

May 31 (Reuters) - The California State Assembly on Tuesday passed a bill that requires Web retailers such as Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O)to collect sales tax on purchases made online.

The bill was approved 50-18, Tom White, chief of staff to Majority Leader Charles Calderon, a Democrat, told Reuters. The bill, which needed 41 votes to pass, now will be sent to the Senate.

The bill stipulates that online retailers with a physical presence, including "affiliates" -- independent Web operators who get a fee for directing traffic to Amazon if it yields a sale -- must collect sales tax from sales made to California residents.

The California Board of Equalization estimates that such a tax could bring $83 million to the state's coffers.

Amazon declined to comment on the vote but last month the company's chief executive Jeff Bezos said at a conference in Yonkers, New York, that Amazon "will continue to drop states who pass those affiliate laws, from the affiliate program."

Amazon has about 10,000 affiliates in California.

Amazon has already announced plans to cancel its affiliate program in Illinois in response to that state's law passed in March. Texas is one of several states considering taxing online sales.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/31/amazon-california-idUSN3111195020110531

 

[wholesalereplica]

I love the way the Politicians stae it could bring in $83m a year in revenue------not if all the affiliates are dropped

Idiots

 

[Maruk]

Can someone explain this tax to me?
If I understand correctly: whenever item X gets sold to person Y from Cali, Amazon needs to pay 'affiliate' sales tax on top of normal sales tax?
Or does the affiliate need to pay tax and if the affiliate does not pay tax, Amazon will be liable?

How does this apply to foreign countries (I am from EU myself).

 

[barcodeunit]

they've already dropped new york and illinois residents.

it's just a matter of time before amazon will no longer do any business in the united states. with all these liberals raising taxes in unnecessary places... it's going to be hard for any company to profit in the US.

 

[wholesalereplica]

Can someone explain this tax to me?
If I understand correctly: whenever item X gets sold to person Y from Cali, Amazon needs to pay 'affiliate' sales tax on top of normal sales tax?
Or does the affiliate need to pay tax and if the affiliate does not pay tax, Amazon will be liable?

How does this apply to foreign countries (I am from EU myself).

it only applies to US residents, those in the states that voted for collecting the taxes specifically

You pay a sales tax when you buy something in the USA (say you were there on holiday and bought something there would be a sales tax-- much like VAT in Europe)

However online sales are exempt from the sales tax if the goods are going out of state, so if you were from New York and bough from Someone in say Florida you would not have to pay the sales tax only Florida residents would pay the sales tax

 

[GrizzlyAdams]

what a terrible outcome, surely they must have seen what happened in the other states when this occured so why would they think they'd be getting millions of dollars? do they simply have it out for freelance entrepreneurs or more likely are they simply retarded?

 

[Maruk]

it only applies to US residents, those in the states that voted for collecting the taxes specifically

You pay a sales tax when you buy something in the USA (say you were there on holiday and bought something there would be a sales tax-- much like VAT in Europe)

However online sales are exempt from the sales tax if the goods are going out of state, so if you were from New York and bough from Someone in say Florida you would not have to pay the sales tax only Florida residents would pay the sales tax

Ah I see, but how do these bills change the situation for Amazon to the point they would stop accepting certain state affiliates?
Is it because these bills would consider the state the affiliate is in as the original state? And if the affiliate makes a sale to someone from out of his state Amazon would have to pay taxes on this sale?

Ugh what a nightmare of a tax structure

 

[wholesalereplica]

Ah I see, but how do these bills change the situation for Amazon to the point they would stop accepting certain state affiliates?
Is it because these bills would consider the state the affiliate is in as the original state? And if the affiliate makes a sale to someone from out of his state Amazon would have to pay taxes on this sale?

Ugh what a nightmare of a tax structure

what each State is doing is taxing ALL online sales, so not just Amazon, ebay would also be affected and anyone else selling anything online.

So it will affect millions of buyers and sellers

many online retailers do not want to get involved due to the high cost of accounting and processing, so its just as easy at this moment to drop affiliates from the program. What happens then, pretty much like the old poker fiasco is, super affialiates may just up sticks and move to another state or indeed another country where they are not affected

my belief for what its worth is the better start preparing as pretty much every state will likely follow suit, so the guys who make tens of thousands a month may be moving country to protect their incomes

 

[ibmethatswhoib]

great that really sucks..Now I have to find away around this, I have a decent income from Amazon at the moment...damn

 

[marketingwise]

Simple. Get another address out of state. Open another account

 

[GrizzlyAdams]

great that really sucks..Now I have to find away around this, I have a decent income from Amazon at the moment...damn

do you not have someone in other states to cash your checks? that's what i would do. good luck.

 

[fnd80]

it costs like 9 bucks to register an LLC in deleware. problem solved.

 

[allinet]

Amazon terminated Illinois affiliates already. Join the crowd. Idiot, shortsighted politicians are worthless!

 

[mission11]

I was going to say what fnd80 said. Just register your business out of state. Delaware seems to be the most popular choice.

 

[FuryKyle]

Damn that's terrible

 

[Maruk]

what each State is doing is taxing ALL online sales, so not just Amazon, ebay would also be affected and anyone else selling anything online.

So it will affect millions of buyers and sellers

many online retailers do not want to get involved due to the high cost of accounting and processing, so its just as easy at this moment to drop affiliates from the program. What happens then, pretty much like the old poker fiasco is, super affialiates may just up sticks and move to another state or indeed another country where they are not affected

my belief for what its worth is the better start preparing as pretty much every state will likely follow suit, so the guys who make tens of thousands a month may be moving country to protect their incomes

Thanks for the explanation buddy. Highly appreciated!

 

[Jonny Quick]

I read with delight each and every story like this. Californians fully deserve every turn of the wheel of the rack. I

LOVE

listening to their moans, groans and wails of agony. Absolutely love it. Hope they wind up wearing nothing but potato sacks, living in cardboard boxes and eating canned dog food.

Have you had enough yet? How's that Liberalism thing working for ya? Maybe if you imported a few more illegals things might get better !
All your problems would be solved if you could just generate some more tax revenue. Make certain to raise the wages of your government employees. Also, "the poor" need high-speed internet, and 22" rims.
LOL !!!!!

 

[djbunch]

This sucks for affiliates in NY, IL, CA and maybe TX. Oh, by the way four of the five most populus states in the US. And Florida, the other state, I don't believe has sales tax.

The thing is, this is going to get the people that are successful affiliates to move to other states, and spend their earnings there instead. So, its not them not getting 83 million, its them not getting 83 million and LOSING the income from the people that move.

On the other hand, I am not effected negatively, but should actually see more opportunity. Also, if my state did change the law, I would drive five miles to Mississippi or Arkansas and get a PO Box.

 

[ibmethatswhoib]

Ya because the 8 years of conservative rule did nothing to our economy. Good one, on a whole the greedy republicans did more to ruin the US.

Trashed the health care (for profits)
Defend Nuclear Plants (ya those worked well in Japan)
Trashed the stock market (removed a ton of regulation that helped keep things stable.)
Leaving us with the biggest gap in income ever. Don't get me started you obviously have no idea what actually happens in politics. Both sides are shitty but overall the republicans have done way more damage to the US.

I read with delight each and every story like this. Californians fully deserve every turn of the wheel of the rack. I

LOVE

listening to their moans, groans and wails of agony. Absolutely love it. Hope they wind up wearing nothing but potato sacks, living in cardboard boxes and eating canned dog food.

Have you had enough yet? How's that Liberalism thing working for ya? Maybe if you imported a few more illegals things might get better !
All your problems would be solved if you could just generate some more tax revenue. Make certain to raise the wages of your government employees. Also, "the poor" need high-speed internet, and 22" rims.
LOL !!!!!

 

[efwebs]

Amazon has a bigger presence in CA than just affiliates