State By State Affiliate Laws (Sales Tax)

[rayenergy]

Question for anyone who might have a quick answer to this:

Recently, the state of California notified its residents that if they are participating in affiliate marketing, that they need to pay an additional sales tax in addition to - say - Amazon applying a sales tax to someone who clicks through to Amazon via a California resident's website. (i think i have this correct?)

Wondering two things:

* Is anyone aware of other states currently imposing this law, or would anyone know the source of aggregated info on this topic on a state-by-state basis?

* Does this only apply to residents of California (or, any given state affected by this Affiliate tax law) -- or, would it also apply to companies residing in the state of California (such as cj.com...which is a Delaware company, but based in Santa Barbara).

Any further info or guidance would be helpful ~ tx! : )

[rayenergy]

...did a little more research online, and it seems that as long as you don't live in one of the handful of states that have (what is being called) "the Amazon law" -- then, you don't have to worry. What's happening is that folks like Amazon and CJ.com are ending relationships with affiliates in those states (for some reason, I was thinking that affiliates could continue, and that the responsibility would then t'fer to affiliates to collect sales tax.....but, in reality, Amazon and other large companies which offer Affiliate programs are pulling out completely and ending affiliate relationships altogether, because 'they' don't want to be responsible for paying sales tax in those states).

The info I was able to find online was contained in news articles from July 2011, and cj.com also had a helpful map of the U.S. which shows individual states' involvment with 'the Amazon tax' and status of any pending legislation.

So, this concludes my need for information, and hopefully this will be helpful to someone else on Lynn's site ~

[DebraLloyd]

rayenergy - there was some fairly in-depth discussion and information on this covered in the Elite brainstorming session a couple of weeks ago. One of the many benefits of Elite membership is that you can look at transcripts and listen to the entire sessions from the archives. Well worth the cost of membership!

[busymomma]

Plus each state that is enacting these laws is different in their wording and needs. I'm in WA and while I don't have the affiliate sales tax law and I'm hopeful (since amazon is based here) we won't, I do have to pay sales tax on just about everything I sell online as a business. You definitely need to talk to an accountant in your state that is well versed in the internet.