I received the following email notice today.
Greetings from the Amazon Associates Program:
We regret to inform you that the Illinois state legislature has passed an unconstitutional tax collection scheme that, if signed by Governor Quinn, would leave Amazon.com little choice but to end its relationships with Illinois-based Associates. You are receiving this email because our records indicate that you are a resident of Illinois. If our records are incorrect, you can manage the details of your Associates account here.
Please note that this not an immediate termination notice and you are still a valued participant in the Amazon Associates Program. But if the governor signs this bill, we will need to terminate the participation of all Illinois residents in the Associates Program. After that point, we will no longer pay any advertising fees for sales referred to amazon.com, endless.com and smallparts.com nor will we accept new applications for the Associates Program from Illinois residents.
The unfortunate consequences of this legislation on Illinois residents like you were explained to the legislature, including Senate and House leadership, as well as to the governor’s staff.
Over a dozen other states have considered essentially identical legislation but have rejected these proposals largely because of the adverse impact on their states’ residents.
Governor Quinn’s office may be reached here.
We thank you for being part of the Amazon Associates Program, and wish you continued success in the future.
Sincerely,
Amazon.com
I’ve had an Amazon Associates account for many years. Its not been very active. The pending legislation will have no impact on me personally.
I wonder how many Associates there are in Illinois. I know of some that are non-profit agencies. Many are bloggers hoping to fill a tip jar. I wonder how many likewise programs by other companies would mirror Amazon’s adopted policy. The dots do connect. In the scramble to raise public sector revenue can we afford to overlook the cause and effect on the private sector?
Click Here To Submit A News Tip Or Story
5 Comments
As I understand it, Amazon already collects state sales taxes on behalf of its local affiliated vendors. If so, this would not be a terrific hardship for them; plus, it's not Amazon who'll be paying the sales taxes, but the customers.
The foregoing of state sales tax collection on the Internet was supposed to be temporary, in order to help start-ups in their infancy. Amazon is nowhere near that status, and it is unfair to the brick-and-mortars not to collect sales taxes from the recipient of merchandise ordered over the Internet.
As a state, we help provide the infrastructure for ordering (broadband) and delivery (roads).
Bottom line: If I were still a small business paying sales taxes, I'd be pretty upset that Amazon is trying to weasel out of doing its part. If I were an Amazon affiliate, I'd be even more upset by this extortion attempt.
I am going to try to find out this week whether Amazon has gotten tax breaks AKA corporate welfare, to boot.
I'm appalled that Sen Burzinski (R) and Reps Wait & Pritchard (R) supported this legislation. Shame on them!
Amazon had announced they
will fight this! Go Amazon.
http://www.suntimes.com/3208655-417/illinois-onli…
Illinois will soon be a ghost state.
The State of Illinois is working hard at driving business out of this state. This focus on the sales tax plus raising the income taxes of employees who work in Illinois does nothing to attract new businesses to come here.
The folks in Indiana do enjoy taking in new businesses and Marriott will be opening one of their largest hotels ever built in Indianapolis soon to pick up the slack of convention business that Chicago chased out. It does not cost $150 an hour for a vendor to plug in an electrical cord into a socket in Indianapolis.
Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.
I suspect that wherever Amazon's corporate HQ's are will be the first place you'll find corporate welfare. From there locate their logistics centers and the dots will connect.
Socialism, Inc.
Most of the small businesses around here are in survival mode and as usual caught in the middle.
Illinois has been very generous with Internet infrastructure grants. I fear it can't (by design) but the State should recapture those funds through a usage fee passed to consumers of the State sponsored broadband networks. Doing so would recover funds as a payment in lieu of state or local sales taxes which are problematic to the global connectivity of the Internet.