A really great affiliate site tracking all the different laws coming down the pipe since New York started it’s battle with Amazon.
http://nyaffiliatevoice.com/2009/05/hawaii-inches-forward/
Apparently, Hawaii is just one of the states to be hitting on this issue now. It’s starting to look like more and more states are going to at least put their toes in the Internet Taxation water.
The practical issue for storeowners is apparent. Most (if not all) of these laws are being written to say that storeowners are responsible only if gross sales are over 10,000 in a given 12-month period. Of course, none of us have a magic crystal ball to accurately determine if we will or won’t have gross sales totaling 10,000 for a year, so what is a storeowner to do? Obviously, we’ll start collecting the tax … JUST IN CASE.
Between the Streamlined Sales Tax Project and all these independent efforts to tax affiliates it appears the writing is on the wall and we may be saying “aloha” to the days of a tax-free Internet.
