State of Texas and Amazon

15 years ago

Wow! Texas was one of the last states that I would have expected to try for that Nexus tax crap.

Fight it while you can. Contact your state rep and governor and tell them how this will effect your livelihood.

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salegurus 15 years ago

Oh Great
Say goodbye if you are an Amazon affiliate in TX
F&%#$$@ politicians
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- Robert Oliver 15 years ago
  
  Not a pretty picture at this time for us Texas
  
  Amazon affiliates. Really sucks.
  
  Major budget cuts in education and other programs,
  
  but less important programs seem to survive and then
  
  they go and pull this crap. I guess I know Amazon's next move.
  
  Robert Oliver
  
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  Robert Oliver 15 years ago
  
  Well,
  
  It looks like Amazon is closing the gigantic warehouse facility
  
  in Texas laying off an undisclosed number of employees. Just what
  
  the economy needs at this time. Let's all stand up and clap for the
  
  State of Texas for these actions.
  
  Robert Oliver
  
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  AllThingsArePossible 15 years ago
  
  Texas big time in debt like other states....they need some money
  
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Ofthemix

15 years ago

This is just depressing.

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1960Texan

15 years ago

Originally Posted by Robert Oliver

Just heard on the afternoon news here in Texas that

"The State of Texas" wants $269 million dollars in taxes

it says Amazon should have collected. Amazon is disputing

the claim based on how did the State arrive at these numbers.

Not sure what this means for us marketers at this time here in Texas.

Robert Oliver

Yeah, the writing is on the wall. I've made a little being an Amazon affiliate but I haven't put much effort into it because I saw this coming. I don't remember the exact post, but about 2 years ago I saw someone in another state mention here that they were losing a six figure income with Amazon because of a similar situation. At that time I was just getting started with Amazon and knew that it was going to happen sooner or later.

Now, if I'd been plugging away at it and had anything of consequence to lose, I'd be looking real hard at setting up an LLC and an office in Delaware right now. In fact, it might not be a bad idea for a group of warriors to get together, pool their resources, and rent office space. You get a broom closet sized office with ten different people splitting the rent and it would be pretty affordable, no matter what the cost per square foot of office space in Delaware.

Will

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Lee Murray

15 years ago

Originally Posted by 1960Texan

Yeah, the writing is on the wall. I've made a little being an Amazon affiliate but I haven't put much effort into it because I saw this coming. I don't remember the exact post, but about 2 years ago I saw someone in another state mention here that they were losing a six figure income with Amazon because of a similar situation. At that time I was just getting started with Amazon and knew that it was going to happen sooner or later.

Now, if I'd been plugging away at it and had anything of consequence to lose, I'd be looking real hard at setting up an LLC and an office in Delaware right now. In fact, it might not be a bad idea for a group of warriors to get together, pool their resources, and rent office space. You get a broom closet sized office with ten different people splitting the rent and it would be pretty affordable, no matter what the cost per square foot of office space in Delaware.

Will

Will, I couldn't agree more. There are 50 states. Texas is pretty cool. I used to live there myself (Austin). But if the Amazon Associates program is putting food on a Texas family's table, then perhaps they'd be just as happy becoming a Delaware family. Colorado is really nice this time of yea... oh wait.

Seriously, it's something worth considering.

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crennyw 15 years ago

all you really need do is get a local business that has post office type of boxes, you can call it a "suite" and you get a street address. That should be good enough, just, then you have a business and owe taxes in that state...
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BlondieWrites

15 years ago

I wonder what effect this will have on Kindle publishing and Create Space. If they shut down affiliates in Texas over this, could it also crash our opportunies to get revenue from Kindle books and Create Space?

Isn't it North Carolina that Amazon shut down the affiliate program on in the past over tax issues with that state? I wonder how things are for NC as far as Kindle and Create Space go....

Cindy

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Rich Kent

15 years ago

This is depressing. I've been thinking of building some Amazon sites, but may have to rethink that until after the dust settles.

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Chris "C.J" Robinson 15 years ago

so does this mean that amazon affiliate's who reside in the state of texas should start looking else where ?

Please say no as I have just starting seriously getting into promoting amazon and actually making some decent money ...........
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mreyn

15 years ago

I'd be interested in knowing also. I was going to order a couple of products on the forum, but now I'm thinking I should wait. Any new info for Tx?

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myob 15 years ago

I've been watching this closely, because similar action is going on in California. The fact that Amazon has such a huge distribution center in Texas is a big plus, and has enabled them to pull off what appears to be a bluff by threatening to close down. The Texas governor intervened saying "this may be a mistake", and the legislature is frantically crafting some new rules to keep Amazon from leaving.
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mydream247

15 years ago

man this sucks, I finally figure out how to make money with amazon, and Texas pulls this crap, what happened to all the money from the lotto, guess to many trips to Vegas has finally caught up.

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website12

Banned 15 years ago

It means texas might be next one kicked off amazon affialte list.

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myob 15 years ago

Originally Posted by website12

It means texas might be next one kicked off amazon affialte list.

Not likely; the governor has not agreed to sign the bill. As I mentioned the state legislature is also now frantically trying to keep Amazon from shutting down their huge distribution center and leaving Texas for Tennesee or other "ecommerce friendly" states. In addition, states such as North Carolina and Rhode Island are reviewing the Nexus Law and it may be up for repeal because of its devasting economic consequences. They now know that Amazon is not just bluffing.
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kurtistb

15 years ago

I guess there is one benefit to actually living in Delaware. I guess I am safe being an amazon affiliate who happens to reside in Delaware but having a sizable portion of my meager earnings earned through amazon I do keep an eye on whats going on. All I can say is that you should contact your state rep to exert what little pressure us common folk can, hopefully it will be enough.

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Steve Faber

15 years ago

Thankfully, I live in Washington State, where Amazon is not likely to leave any time soon. Unfortunately, I do relatively little with Amazon, although it has been growing lately. I have made enough to buy a nice tennis racket.

What I do worry about is when other companies start, ah, reviewing, their affiliate programs, which we all know is coming sooner, rather than later. Sure we can all rush off and create our own products, and I have.

The fact remains though, that I make far more from affiliate programs at this point, and I have about 15 websites and blogs all monetized primarily with affiliate programs. Redoing it all would make "pain in the ass" not even begin to apply.

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lisakleinweber

15 years ago

Now, if I'd been plugging away at it and had anything of consequence to lose, I'd be looking real hard at setting up an LLC and an office in Delaware right now. In fact, it might not be a bad idea for a group of warriors to get together, pool their resources, and rent office space. You get a broom closet sized office with ten different people splitting the rent and it would be pretty affordable, no matter what the cost per square foot of office space in Delaware.

When this first happened in Hawaii and ... another state, I forget which one, a man with a sizeable chunk of his income coming from Amazon set up a virtual corporation in Las Vegas - which means his corporation was licensed in vegas and he hired a company to open his mail and answer his phone there. I think it cost him something like $200 a month.

He wrote about it online. I paid close attention because I lived in Hawaii at the time. Luckily, the governor did not sign the bill in Hawaii and although I was booted from the affiliate program I was allowed to rejoin.

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Tsnyder

15 years ago

What I don't get about Amazon is that this really isn't
that big a deal. Network marketing companies have dealt
with this issue for years.

Collecting and remitting sales tax is not a complicated thing.
Amazon is just being stubborn... they may stubborn themselves
out of the game.

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myob

15 years ago

Originally Posted by Tsnyder

What I don't get about Amazon is that this really isn't
that big a deal. Network marketing companies have dealt
with this issue for years.

Collecting and remitting sales tax is not a complicated thing.
Amazon is just being stubborn... they may stubborn themselves
out of the game.

Amazon is not the only company fighting this. The volume of sales makes it prohibitively expensive for compliance; as it is far more cost effective just to drop affiliates to eliminate this tax liability. Many such states also have variable tax rates depending on the county, which in fact does make it quite complicated.

Besides, customers are already required to add sales tax for all online purchases when filing their state income tax. Are you paying your fair share of state online "use tax"? Didn't think so.

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Tsnyder

15 years ago

Originally Posted by myob

Amazon is not the only company fighting this. The volume of sales makes it prohibitively expensive for compliance; as it is far more cost effective just to drop affiliates to eliminate this tax liability. Many such states also have variable tax rates depending on the county, which in fact does make it quite complicated.

Besides, customers are already required to add sales tax for all online purchases when filing their state income tax. Are you paying your fair share of state online "use tax"? Didn't think so.

The issue is no more complicated than having the right software.

If I'm not mistaken, Amazon has a facility in the state of Texas.
If that's true how do they figure they aren't responsible for collecting
and remitting sales tax on purchases made by Texas residents?

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myob 15 years ago

This is the issue; the state of Texas is billing Amazon retroactively for $290 million in back retail sales taxes. Similar action is being pursued by other nexus tax states. Amazon does have a large distribution center in Irving, Texas. And they do pay their state corporate income tax.

By simply dropping all affiliates and abandoning the distribution center in Texas and in all other nexus tax states will not affect Amazon sales in those states at all. It is a simple solution for Amazon if pressed, and they have already proven they're not bluffing. People will still buy, but since there would be no affiliate "presence" the states will not have any sales tax revenue. The existing nexus tax states are at a net loss economically and some are actively considering repealing it.

Technically and legally, state sales taxes should have been paid by the purchasers, not by Amazon. The tax law is already on the books that online buyers pay their own sales tax. Just because this sales tax cannot be enforced should not be of any concern or responsibility for Amazon, as so goes their argument.
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unlimitedmarketing

15 years ago

This is not good as I just got a WSO that will help me set up my Amazon blog and be profitable in 2 weeks. I live in Texas, and I really hope that Amazon finds a solution to this. At the rate that Amazon is growing, I would love to take a piece of the pie.

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TheCG 15 years ago

A foreign LLC or corp, local phone number (to that same state) which can easily be gotten through a variety of providers and a local mailing address (again, a service that can be gotten through one of several sources) should easily solve issues for anyone in any state that Amazon decides to jet from.

Total cost should be less than $200 a year, depending on the state you pick.
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GeorgeReed

15 years ago

oh this is getting bad, these politicians are getting desperate to raise some midterm campaign dollars....probably running out of big business cash so resorting to extortion of the everyman. Not Nice.

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Zeus66

15 years ago

I live in TX and have been earning a decent income from Amazon for many years now. I keep up with this pretty closely and it appears at this point that TX sees the writing on the wall and is going to blink first. I sure hope so. It would suck to have to find an alternative and replace probably 1,000 pages of content (at least) with some other affiliate links. Yikes.

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HeySal

15 years ago

If I were making 6 figures - or even a highly healthy 5 figures from Amazon and my state decided to pull this one off, I would not have one whit of a problem with contacting my legislator and telling them I will move if it goes through and they can kiss every other tax I do pay there - and all the other money I spend consuming in the state - a happy and hearty farewell.

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Mike McAleer

15 years ago

This sucks. I don't see how Amazon can just shut off affiliates from certain states.

Really sucks for you guys.

That is why I think I will hold off on Amazon sites.

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State of Texas and Amazon

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