The Performance Marketing Alliance (PMA) filed a brief yesterday in New York State Supreme Court in support of Amazon.com and Overstock.com in a pending lawsuit with the state. The case is over whether affiliate partners constitute a physical “nexus” in the state, and hence require online only retailers to charge consumers sales tax on online purchases. You can learn more on our blog posts tagged affiliate tax. There’s some more coverage on the WSJ Digits blog.
If enacted, bills like the one that became law in New York State impact entrepreneurs and small businesses that earn a living as an affiliate. Below you’ll find a few maps that illustrate the extent of affiliates in states that have considered the affiliate tax. Each red mark represents a zip code where affiliates reside in that state.
Tennessee
California
Florida
[...] with Share A Sale (where we host our own referral program by the way), Commission Junction, or LinkShare, and a blogger who lives in California writes about your business and their favorite products. [...]
An affiliate is an independent contractor. He needs to pay state taxes on his income derived from all activities. An affiliate is not selling in-state and is hence not subject to a sales tax. Of course the court may rule otherwisee, but not because they have a legitimate argument, but because it is in their nature to steal money and then rationalize it later.
The rule of law has fallen by the wayside.
[...] with Share A Sale (where we host our own referral program by the way), Commission Junction, or LinkShare, and a blogger who lives in California writes about your business and their favorite products. [...]