If you're an Amazon affiliate - meaning you publish links to Amazon.com products and get affiliate revenue from sales - you might not be for long. Our mis-representatives in the NC legislature are close to passing SB S202 (The budget package), and in a nutshell, with a little part of the bill known as the "Amazon Tax" - here's what it does: Amazon will be forced by law to collect sales tax whenever an NC affiliate refers a visitor to Amazon.com and that visitor makes a purchase. Amazon will them have to send the sales (I think it's actually use tax) to the state. Great law right? Tax money for our programs, etc. But wait... I'm an Amazon affiliate (and an affiliate for a few other companies)...and I got an email from Amazon today saying that if the bill passes into law, Amazon.com will "...no longer pay any referral fees for customers referred to Amazon.com or Endless.com nor will we accept new applications for the Associates program from North Carolina residents." This means a few things: 1. NC won’t get the sales/use tax it thought it would from affiliates because there will be NO AFFILIATES in the great state of North Carolina. 2. NC will not get the income tax from the profits that were generated by affiliate sales because there will be NO AFFILIATE SALES in North Carolina making profits. 3. NC will have erased with one broad budget bill the income of THOUSANDS of AFFILIATES in North Carolina. I know affiliates who make $1500 a month from Amazon. That money, and the corresponding income tax for the state will be erased. People who run very profitable affiliate sites will be forced to do something else. Maybe collect unemployment. This doesn't just apply to Amazon...do you have Google AdSense ads on your site? That's an affiliate program. Jobamatic? That's one too...it's logical to assume these companies don't want to do the dirty work of charging NC taxes...so they will assumable be refusing to pay affiliates in NC soon as well. This will also be the case in other states - eight states are currently considering a law like this one. Anyway, if you have an affiliate program of any kind, you might want to keep track of this. If you're on Twitter, you can follow #ncaffiliatetax for updates.
The great money grab in Raleigh is on! You don't expect them to consider smaller interests. If you give a lot of donations ot have a big enough lobby then you will be protected. They have been drooling over "missing" tax on the internet.
