If California is requiring sales tax for online marketers then it'll probably come here to Arizona soon. It seems that whenever they do something the Arizona law makers copy them and implement it here.
And.. it has been passed, i got the email couple hours ago, Hello, Unfortunately, Governor Brown has signed into law the bill that we emailed you about earlier today. As a result of this, contracts with all California residents participating in the Amazon Associates Program are terminated effective today, June 29, 2011. Those California residents will no longer receive advertising fees for sales referred to Amazon.com, Endless.com, MYHABIT.COM or SmallParts.com. Please be assured that all qualifying advertising fees earned before today will be processed and paid in full in accordance with the regular payment schedule.
Being a California resident - my Amazon account has been officially closed. I did not make a lot of money from Amazon - about $60-$100 a month - but guess where I spent the money - in my hometown in California - so no more sales tax from that profit nor income tax for the state of California on those revenues... And where do you think the 10,000 other Amazon affiliates spent their Amazon revenues - locally in California - so the state has immediately lost revenue from this new law... and slowed down the state's economy. Meanwhile, I will tighten my belt another notch... and not go out for dinner as often.
Wall Street Journal This new Governor will found out just like we did in Rhode Island, that they will NOT get any revenue.
Aldouspi I had to suck it up too... I live in Rhode Island. They collected 0.00 new taxes since the Law.
I am loosing 1k a month because of this crap law! Did any of you guys think of an creative ways to work around this?a
Danny points out how this brick and mortar fairness is actually quite unfair to the online competitors. Brick and mortars have both sensory and guilt advantages as Danny boy points out. To make the brick and mortar play fair with Amazon they would need to keep their product boxed up until one to seven business days after the purchase was transacted. This would eliminate the unfair advantage that the bricks have where customers can touch, thumb through, bounce, throw, smell, try own, view in a mirror, listen to, open up, percuss, strum, squeeze, and rub against their cheeks. Etail customers have to wait for all of that, so let's be fair. Right now a good ecommerce company can expect 3% conversion rate while brick and mortar enjoy 50% or more as a conversion rate. I don't quite see how California is due sales tax for a transaction that took place in Washington. The only interaction that the transaction had with the state of California is the transport on the road that my property tax paid for delivered by a driver who is overtaxed in a truck that was taxed at purchased and retaxed every year and is fueled by gas that is California taxed gasoline from a fuel distributor that is taxed from a refinery that is taxed and regulated. It sounds like Danny needs to move back to Europe and out of Orange County where people actually have been involved in creating economic value rather than leaching off of the producers in society. Oh and by the way, by being the best in e-commerce world, Amazon made 4.19% profit last year. By being the worst run state government, California thinks they deserve 7.25% on Amazon sales (they are taking 8.25% through today but the voters wouldn't let them keep that going past July 1).
This is unbelievable. I'm a CA based business, however only spent 2 out of the last 12 months in California, still paying CA income tax because I call it my home. Now I'm embarrassed and ashamed to call it my home. Been dropped from Bodybuilding.com and Amazon already, which makes up nearly 10k a month in revenue. The only way around that is to move to a neighboring state, and it is looking like Nevada. I'll be posting my progress for moving my California corporation to Nevada to help other affiliates who want to get the heck out of an unfair and unjust state.
I have read that some people are looking into getting an LLC from Delaware. Does anyone know more about this? Do you really have to move out of the state? Or can your business be incorporated in another state without your actual physical presence being there?
I plan on eventually moving back to Louisiana.. Eventually they threw this law out before it was even news. The east Coast and West Coast is crappo now.
i heard that also. California government take tax for online earning activity. How they can find transaction activity?
I've read this news couple of times all over the internet. I have to say: thank God, I'm not from USA!
This is a shame for everyone in California. I know that this will not work out and eventually it will get back to normal, because nobody wins from this situation. But the question is how long?
Doesn't matter how long for me. I've already started my move to Nevada. Working with a Realtor to buy property now, already have a virtual PO box in Vegas, and going to register a car there and get a NV drivers license when I get back to the sates next week. It will take a very long time to reverse it. Look at how slow government is at getting stuff passed. Many years is my guess.