If you are involved with Affiliate marketing (also called Internet marketing or advertising) you are hopefully aware of pending and existing Internet tax legislation.

Internet tax legislation essentially redefines the definition of retailer and nexus to include out of state merchants who have affiliates residing in a state passing the new law. What does this mean? The simple explanation of these laws is that out of state merchants would be required to collect and remit a sales tax. Without this new definition merchants are not required to collect and remit; instead, it is the customer that must /should remit the sales tax themselves - it is then called a use tax. With over 7000 different tax jurisdictions in the US, many merchants decide to terminate affiliates in states passing this legislation. The record keeping and burden of complying is seen as too much work.

Last year, NY passed what was nicknamed the Amazon tax. It resulted in hundreds of merchants terminating thousands of affiliates. Dozens of states are either already working on passing legislation or investigating it. Over the past year, I have been working on this issue. I have done this through NYAffiliateVoice and now AffiliateVoice. If you have any questions on this or other affiliate marketing issues feel free to ask.

Hawaii has an Internet tax bill sitting on the Governor's desk. Other states including Rhode Island, North Carolina, California, Tennessee and Connecticutt either have pending separate legislation or have included an Internet Tax as part of the upcoming budgets. If you are an affiliate please take action to educate yourself as to your state's status. Ask questions and prepare; the survival of your business might just depend on it.

Thanks for the update and info Melanie.

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