Texas Bills Amazon 269M for sales taxes

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

[dailyfinance.com...]

Although the state evidently said its bill, for uncollected sales taxes from December 2005 to December 2009 with extra interest and penalties, was sent to Amazon in August, The Dallas Morning News reported that the matter wasn't made public until Amazon released its latest quarterly report on Friday.

So the list of U.S. States for affiliates to avoid living in for fear of termination is now...

New York
Florida
North-Carolina
Colorado
California (depending on who is elected next Governor)
and soon Texas

Do States really not grasp that their tax grab will result in companies doing less business in their state and that affiliates who earn a living from their efforts will need to move to another state/country to simply continue earning that living? It seems that they forget that any % of zero will always be zero. It's especially unfair for U.S. based affiliates who live under threat of termination when their foreign counterparts can do business in the U.S. without worry.

[onepointone]

We intend to vigorously defend ourselves in this matter.

So it looks like amazon will contest it, the state will go after other remedies, and amazon will likely drop the texas affiliates, etc. Seen it before...

For every attack, there is a response. I live in a state where amazon dropped its affiliates. But there are several options for affiliates to still keep receiving commission checks. One of them is even funded by google. Hint: subaffiliate, or "monetizes your pages funded by google"

I do think the sales tax situation is screwed up. Online needs to pay as offline does. How to do it right is the rub.

[tangor]

Look for a related report at [webmasterworld.com...]

Wherein a judge has told North Carolina NO in this regard...

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

He did more than say no, he blocked a request aimed at having Amazon turn over hundreds of thousands of transaction documents covering several years of sales. I'd say whoever thought it was a good idea for Texas to try this needs to be relieved of his/her position for several reasons, a lack of consideration for privacy being one of them.