71–80 of 168 posts
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I love it when everyone works together to make a lose/lose/lose situation happen.
It might be a win for non-Amazon retailers, if the removal of Amazon's affiliate program reduced the total % of internet book-related links that go to Amazon versus other booksellers (keeping that % up is of course one reason Amazon has the program in the first place).
Frickin fantastic. There goes my business model...
Would moving out of California be an option? Or at least doing the minimum to establish residency somewhere with fairly lax requirements?
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I think as long as your business has a presence in CA (like your office or home office) you still have to pay taxes. Of course, you could register your business in a state that doesn't disclose stakeholder info, like Nevada or those Wyoming shell companies. Edit: definitely not a lawyer
I don't mind paying taxes on my earnings from the affiliate program. It's not like the government would expect me to pay taxes on the cost of the goods sold. It's the amount made from the affiliate program. Amazon is a significant source of income for me in California, and I was thinking of creating a California LLC this year anyway to shield from lawsuits. I'm now going to seriously think about doing it in Delaware…
Some important background on this. At issue here is sales tax. By state law, the tax is owed by the citizens to the state no matter where they make the purchase. To make enforcement easier, the tax is supposed to be collected by businesses. In theory the tax is owed regardless, but as a practical matter when businesses do not collect the tax, customers don't volunteer the information and the state loses revenue. This…
http://leginfo.ca.gov/pub/11-12/bill/asm/ab_0001-0050/abx1_2...
[edited to note that revisions are highlighted]
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It might be a win for non-Amazon retailers, if the removal of Amazon's affiliate program reduced the total % of internet book-related links that go to Amazon versus other booksellers (keeping that % up is of course one reason Amazon has the program in the first place).
I doubt if Amazon competitors collect sales tax that their prices will remain competitive with Amazon.
For example, I have a site with some book reviews which currently links the Amazon page for all the books, because they pay me. If Amazon terminates its affiliate program in my state, why would I continue to link Amazon, rather than someone else? I would first look into alternate affiliate programs, like AbeBooks. If I couldn't find any worth using, I'd probably change it to just link the official publisher page for each book. Or maybe to a local-bookstore aggregator like indiebound.org. Or the Wikipedia article, when one exists.
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I don't think it's at all unreasonable for states to want to enforce the tax that's already on the books and supposed to be already reported/collected, as you state. The problem is the hangup with the commerce clause. Catalog companies didn't threaten to make a significant % of all sales into postal sales, the internet does. I'd hope that we could find a way to straighten things out where the state can still assess t…
Catalog companies didn't threaten to make a significant % of all sales into postal sales, the internet does. I am not so sure of that. Particularly in rural states, companies like Sears-Roebuck were the prime source of all sorts of amenities of basic life, from phonographs to sewing machines. Sure, it took longer, but the prices were a lot better than general stores. And the selection was amazing. You could buy anyth…
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Citation needed To the best of my knowledge Amazon has no distribution centers in any states that collect sales tax explicitly because it doesn't want to be forced to collect sales taxes.
Every time I order from Amazon the delivery starts in CA almost the same day. Perhaps there's some legal entity funny-business going on to make all of its CA fulfillment not count as such, but what else would you call the place that ships me the package?
I just looked through http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon.com#Fulfillment_and_ware... and there is no California location listed.
I live in California, and I've received lots of packages from Nevada.
I suspect Amazon secretly wish they could just get rid of their entire affiliate program. If it was so profitable, they wouldn't be getting rid of affiliates left and right. If you think about it, most people who buy thru an Amazon affiliate link probably would've bought it from Amazon anyway (due to its huge brand recognition, dominance in Google, etc). So, when an affiliate refers a sale, sometimes they're losing m…
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I love it when everyone works together to make a lose/lose/lose situation happen.
Yup. Politicians and governments are, by and large, oblivious to the fact that laws induce behavioral changes. Like extending unemployment benefits to 99 weeks, then somehow being surprised when the rate increases of people staying on unemployment rather than finding jobs. Or creating a tax credit for low-income families who have children, then being surprised when the low-income birth rate increases. In the politici…
Come on. Politicians are some of the smartest people in the society. Do you really think they are oblivious or do you think they're just looking out for #1?
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So... if I understand correctly, if I am a resident of California and I buy books from Amazon, I pay no sales tax (isn't that the same as VAT)? Does this mean that Amazon books in Washington are more expensive (because I Amazon must collect the taxes, because the state can force it to, because it has a physical presence there)?
If you live in CA and buy books from Amazon, Amazon does not collect sales tax. You are still required by law to pay it. The onus is now on you to calculate the amount and include it when you file your income taxes.