tangor - 9:00 am on Jun 15, 2011 (gmt 0)

@MsHuggys and @diberry... I tend to be too tongue-in-cheek for my own good and perhaps to the confusion of others. My apologies. The concept of Taxing the internet is NOT going away, there will be no way to escape it because the BUYERS aren't upholding their end of the "deal" which is DECLARING PURCHASE and then PAYING TAXES on products they purchase and bring (or cause to be brought into) their State as EVERY STATE WHICH COLLECTS SALES TAXES REQUIRES. So... here we are. This Arkansas legislation, or something even more Draconian, will eventually happen at the FEDERAL LEVEL. Amazon, meanwhile, will cut loses by cutting affiliates State by State (which if anyone is really honest ain't a big part of their biz, yours or Amazon's) whenever a State passes legislation. Ultimately this legislation will not affect AMAZON'S BOTTOM LINE. Reality? Loopholes get shut all the time... and are getting shut faster these days since the current taxation on business has driven most companies off-shore (but that's a different kettle of fish and delves into politics which is most outside the scope of this forum, thus I club me first and say no more).

Merely suggesting two things: 1) Conduct biz as usual as long as you can, but be ready to make changes as it won't last forever, 2) Don't plan your financial future with hodge and podge gimmicks as that will last even shorter (look at all the States jumping on the "Amazon Tax" wagon). Might get a few years out of it, but will not pay off your mortgage...

And crowing about how to "do it this way" in public is not a good idea, even if some of us have been doing the since the late 1960s... long before an equally tax-hungry Congress was in office... Anyone remember the mid-1980's "modem tax" flying about the BBSs about that time? Didn't happen then, but it HAS happened in the Amazon taxation starting with NY to all the States inbetween.

NON-USA readers are not concerned with this thread... you're already dealing with VAT and THRESHOLDS and probably a few other things I don't know about...