Amazon Will Do Everything It Takes To Kill California's New Sales Tax Law

[ej510]

Amazon is backing a referendum to overturn California's sales tax law, the New York Times reports.
Here's what's going on: states -- deep in the hole these days -- want e-tailers, and in particular Amazon, to collect sales tax on their affiliates. Amazon and others say, correctly, that they don't have to if they don't have a presence in the state. This debate has been going on for a while but has new urgency given the budgetary troubles of most states.

Affiliate marketing is one of the big ways Amazon generates incremental sales, so it's a big deal for them.
Recently California demanded the sales tax from Amazon. In response, Amazon shut off its affiliates. California then said, in essence, too bad, you still owe us all the sales tax from before you shut them off. And then Amazon gave them the one-finger salute.
So here we are.
Now Amazon is fighting back with the tools it has, a referendum to change the law in California.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-referendum-california-sales-tax-law-2011-7#ixzz1RtzGC6Tg

[Mimosa]

1. Bezos looks like he has a fake eye in that photo

I've long been an Amazon buyer. I can argue both sides for or against internet sales taxes. I'm leaning for lately, since i'm seeing so many bookstores die. But that may be because many are reading online.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

2. I would bet on Amazon winning at this point