The New York State Legislature wants Amazon to collect sales taxes from New York buyers, despite Amazon not having a physical presence in the state.
Affiliates, not storefronts, figure in the forthcoming battle between online retailer Amazon.com and New York lawmakers.
AffiliateTip summarized the point where New York will treat locals who place Amazon's affiliate code on their websites as being the same as Amazon having a physical presence in New York. "If it passes legal challenges, I would imagine many other states would follow with similar plans, which could be bad for online merchants and affiliates," said Shawn Collins.
The New York Post noted how the New York Legislature dropped a provision into its recently passed budget to try and collect taxes from Amazon and other online retailers. They will have to pay state and local taxes, or face audits and other legal challenges from New York for the money.
New York expects to pull in $50 million in the first year of its scheme, $73 million in the second, the Post said. It appears the state will have to overcome a legal fight with Amazon first, as Amazon will not want its substantial edge over local businesses abrogated by the new law.
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wow
Look forward to more articles from you and to find out what the other people in the law perfession think of this.
Amazon too big for its own
Amazon too big for its own good - that doesn't make sense at all. This is NOT unique to Amazon. the state is just going after Amazon because they stand to get a LOT of revenue from them. There is nothing special about Amazon that allows them not to pay sales tax to state of NY.
The state of NY does NOT have the right to force a business that has no physical presence in NY to collect taxes for them. It is THEIR job to collect taxes from residents that buy stuff on the internet and don't pay sales tax. It appears that NY is arguing that having affiliates who live in NY means they have a physical presence.
As an online retailer, I would just prohibit anybody who lives in NY from being an affiliate of mine. Then there is no argument that my site has a physical presence in NY.
Its not that us online retailers don't want to pay sales taxes. Its just that we cannot keep track of 50 different states with so many different rates. Some with county and local sales tax too. Also states don't all tax the same types of items. Some charge tax on clothes, some don't. Some food is taxed, some not and the classification of what is food varies from state to state.
Amazon too big for its own good
We really need to let Amazon.com
know that are as human and are on
planet earth as the rest of us. They
are not special and certainly are nor
some king or god.
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