{"id":16862,"date":"2010-03-08T12:48:13","date_gmt":"2010-03-08T19:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=16862"},"modified":"2010-03-08T12:52:22","modified_gmt":"2010-03-08T19:52:22","slug":"amazon-states-sales-tax-and-playing-hardball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/03\/08\/amazon-states-sales-tax-and-playing-hardball.html","title":{"rendered":"Amazon, states, sales tax, and playing hardball"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"imgTag\"<\/div>\n

Just received an email from Amazon.com:<\/p>\n

Dear Colorado-based Amazon Associate:<\/p>\n

We are writing from the Amazon Associates Program to inform you that the Colorado government recently enacted a law to impose sales tax regulations on online retailers. The regulations are burdensome and no other state has similar rules. The new regulations do not require online retailers to collect sales tax. Instead, they are clearly intended to increase the compliance burden to a point where online retailers will be induced to “voluntarily” collect Colorado sales tax — a course we won’t take.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We and many others strongly opposed this legislation, known as HB 10-1193<\/a>, but it was enacted anyway. Regrettably, as a result of the new law, we have decided to stop advertising through Associates based in Colorado. We plan to continue to sell to Colorado residents, however, and will advertise through other channels, including through Associates based in other states.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There is a right way for Colorado to pursue its revenue goals, but this new law is a wrong way. As we repeatedly communicated to Colorado legislators, including those who sponsored and supported the new law, we are not opposed to collecting sales tax within a constitutionally-permissible system applied even-handedly. The US Supreme Court has defined what would be constitutional, and if Colorado would repeal the current law or follow the constitutional approach to collection, we would welcome the opportunity to reinstate Colorado-based Associates.<\/p>\n

You may express your views of Colorado’s new law to members of the General Assembly<\/a> and to Governor Ritter<\/a>, who signed the bill.<\/p>\n

Your Associates account has been closed as of March 8, 2010, and we will no longer pay advertising fees for customers you refer to Amazon.com after that date. Please be assured that all qualifying advertising fees earned prior to March 8, 2010, will be processed and paid in accordance with our regular payment schedule. Based on your account closure date of March 8, any final payments will be paid by May 31, 2010.<\/p>\n

We have enjoyed working with you and other Colorado-based participants in the Amazon Associates Program, and wish you all the best in your future.
\nBest Regards,<\/p>\n

The Amazon Associates Team<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’ve never seen much money back from being an Amazon Associate, so I’m not actually out any money. But the legislation (and, to a lesser degree Amazon’s reaction) is ruffling<\/a> feathers<\/a> in<\/a> various<\/a> places<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As a Colorado resident, I’m highly sensitive to the state’s budget woes (and an vehemently against the “fine, let’s just cut services more” mentality). As a consumer, I love that purchases through Amazon are sales-tax-free — and will be the first to admit that sometimes that’s the deciding factor for me in where I buy something (the netbook I just ordered being probably the most expensive example).\u00a0 One could argue that virtual storefronts impact the state much less than bricks-and-mortar ones, and so should be sales-tax-free, but that’s not necessarily convincing.<\/p>\n

Wish there was a simple answer here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just received an email from Amazon.com: Dear Colorado-based Amazon Associate: We are writing from the Amazon Associates Program to inform you that the Colorado government recently enacted a law to impose sales tax regulations on online retailers. The regulations are burdensome and no other state has similar rules. The new regulations do not require online … Continue reading “Amazon, states, sales tax, and playing hardball”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[35,28,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-business","category-media-moguls","category-politics-law"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":129501,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/01\/16\/amazon-will-collect-colorado-sales-tax-as-of-february.html","url_meta":{"origin":16862,"position":0},"title":"Amazon will collect Colorado sales tax as of February","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 16-Jan-16 1:02am","format":false,"excerpt":"Starting next month, Amazon will start collecting state sales taxes (2.9%) on purchases made by Colorado residents; this is the 28th state Amazon will be doing that for.Technically, of course, all Colorado residents under state law are already supposed to keep track of what sales tax they owe on Internet\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28549,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/07\/12\/be-careful-what-you-ask-for-retailers.html","url_meta":{"origin":16862,"position":1},"title":"Be careful what you ask for, retailers","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 12-Jul-12 2:08pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Bricks and mortar retailers have long complained that Amazon had an unfair advantage due to no sales tax when they did not have a b&m presence in the state. \u00a0After years of lobbying Congress about it, they seem to have won: Amazon is inking agreements to collect state sales taxes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27439,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/04\/17\/the-little-league-internet-tax-cometh.html","url_meta":{"origin":16862,"position":2},"title":"The Little League Internet Tax cometh","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 17-Apr-12 8:55pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Because if Internet companies like Amazon aren't forced to collect sales taxes, then Main Street companies will go out of business which will wipe out the support for your local Little League team! Honest!Um ...Okay, it's a complicated equation. Lack of sales tax payment does provide Internet vendors an advantage\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33621,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/06\/internet-sales-taxes-advance.html","url_meta":{"origin":16862,"position":3},"title":"Internet sales taxes advance","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 6-May-13 8:16pm","format":false,"excerpt":"And, yeah, it's probably time. \u00a0Three notes on the article:1. Do less than $1MM in online sales a year, you're exempt. Hardly onerous on little mom-pop sales order shops.2. The provisions for states to give retailers the ability to calculate the tax and centralize tax payments makes this close to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133164,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/03\/27\/end-of-a-tax-free-era.html","url_meta":{"origin":16862,"position":4},"title":"End of a tax-free era","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 27-Mar-17 2:16pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Amazon's been doing this on a smaller scale in certain states, but as of 1 April they will begin collecting sales tax (where applicable) in all 50 states in the US.I don't expect this will cut down on my Amazon purchasing, though -- the frequently lower costs were not just\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12269,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/06\/11\/my_little_city_is_all_gro.html","url_meta":{"origin":16862,"position":5},"title":"My little city is all grown up!","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 11-Jun-08 6:34pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Centennial is one of the largest cities in Colorado (with a population of 103K)\u00a0-- and one of the youngest (incorporated in 2001). After an uphill battle to\u00a0be incorporated out of...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16862\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}