Colorado Affiliates: Take Action Against Advertising Tax!

Add Virginia and New Mexico to the latest round of states trying this bullshit. I wonder how much money NC (now implemented, where Amazon & others cut off affiliates) is actually making from this.
 


UPDATE: The Appropriations Committee is going to meet this Wednesday, January 27 to discuss this bill. A group of Colorado Affiliates is being put together to go in person and make our voices heard. If you are free on Wednesday and want to come help, you can call Brad Crooks for more info at 303-324-1016 or check out this blog post: http://www.amnavigator.com/blog/2010/01/24/colorado-introduces-affiliate-tax-bill/
 
Went through and contacted all of the reps. We're a month or so away from launching an affiliate network, so it looks like we might have to incorporate outside of Colorado.
 
1EightT said:
Went through and contacted all of the reps. We're a month or so away from launching an affiliate network, so it looks like we might have to incorporate outside of Colorado.
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That won't help you unless you physically move out of the state or you setup an entire (virtual) office and mail forwarder in a different state. You might be able to incorporate here and in another state and then the CO INC owns the other INC. You also want to avoid that the IRS or CO thinks you are doing this to avoid local taxes. I know that is not the reason, but they might think differently.

You might want to look into that a little more to avoid any mistakes in the early stage. I would be interested in what you find out as I am considering the same type of setup to stay in the game.
 
johu said:
I wonder how much money NC (now implemented, where Amazon & others cut off affiliates) is actually making from this.
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I haven't heard about any states sharing stats on this being a success.

The reality is that if a bunch of affiliate programs in those states just boot the affiliates to get around the law, it could result in a net loss for the state.

The incremental sales tax being collected from affiliate programs that keep their affiliates could very well be less than the income tax no longer being collected from people booted from affiliate programs.
 
bigbyte said:
That won't help you unless you physically move out of the state or you setup an entire (virtual) office and mail forwarder in a different state. You might be able to incorporate here and in another state and then the CO INC owns the other INC. You also want to avoid that the IRS or CO thinks you are doing this to avoid local taxes. I know that is not the reason, but they might think differently.

You might want to look into that a little more to avoid any mistakes in the early stage. I would be interested in what you find out as I am considering the same type of setup to stay in the game.
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Nothing illegal about incorporating your business outside of your primary residence state. There are over 2 million corporations registered at a single office in Delaware. None of them have a REAL physical location there. You just use that office as your address. Pretty common. We have an accountant that handles all of that. That's what all of the credit card companies do.
 
The Denver Post published an article about the different tax related bills that are going through the committees today. 11 bills total. And they all are not very business friendly. And from the article I would say chances are high that these bills are actually signed into law. Not good. This govenor is driving businesses out of state faster than expected.
 
Definitely heading down to the court house today to voice my disapproval. Apathy and laziness will have us all bulldozed in a failed attempt to help the budget crisis, here and everywhere else. Networks that aren't having their employees email our representatives AND attend the Appropriations Committeeneed meeting today need to wake the fuck up. That's embarrassing not to be in touch and concerned enough with the industry to put every ounce of effort possible into this fight. NOTHING could be more important in the affiliate marketing world.
 
WhatupG said:
Bastards.
Looks like it passed the first hurdle 6-5 according to this site:
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Saw that too. Time to start emailing the senators and reps so that it doesn't make it to law.

Such short-sighted lawmaking "Quick, get an extra couple % points" before causing contributing members of society to lose their source of income.
 
SniperRyan said:
Saw that too. Time to start emailing the senators and reps so that it doesn't make it to law.

Such short-sighted lawmaking "Quick, get an extra couple % points" before causing contributing members of society to lose their source of income.
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Second round for me on sending out messages. This time I will do email and USPS Priority Mail.
 
From what I'm told the definition of affiliate according to this bill was: a person who publically, not including electronic, solicits business physically in the state of Colorado.

Thus the bill doesn't affect our industry at all.
 
That's an interesting interpretation if that is the case. Time to send a copy to our lawyer and see what he has to say about it. In the mean time, i'll be contacting everyone once again.
 
kingrage said:
From what I'm told the definition of affiliate according to this bill was: a person who publically, not including electronic, solicits business physically in the state of Colorado.

Thus the bill doesn't affect our industry at all.
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Now tell Amazon, Overstock, and many hundreds of other companies to see it the same way. I doubt they will risk paying sales tax because of one interpretation - unless confirmed by the highest court in Colorado. And by then it is probably too late for many of us ...
 
The last chance we have to defeat this now is to email all of the House Democrats in Colorado and urge them to vote down HB-1193. It is going to a vote either later today or early next week, so time is of the essence.

Here's the list:

jeanne.labuda.house@state.co.us mark.ferrandino.house@state.co.us repkagan@gmail.com kjerryfrangas@earthlink.net repjoeljudd@joeljudd.com lois@loiscourt.com terrance.carroll.house@state.co.us beth.mccann.house@state.co.us joe@joemiklosi.com DickeyLee@comcast.net claire@clairelevy.org dennis.apuan.house@state.co.us mmerrifield2003@yahoo.com RepMaxTyler@gmail.com sue.schafer.house@state.co.us andy.kerr.house@state.co.us sara.gagliardi.house@state.co.us debbie@debbiebenefield.org judsol@earthlink.net edward@edwardcasso.org dianne.primavera.house@state.co.us john.soper.house@state.co.us cherylin.peniston.house@state.co.us su.ryden.house@state.co.us joe.rice.house@state.co.us nancy.todd.house@state.co.us karen@karenmiddleton.com sal_pace@hotmail.com buffie.mcfayden.house@state.co.us jim.riesberg.house@state.co.us john.kefalas.house@state.co.us RandyFischer@frii.com repscanlan@gmail.com kathleen.curry.house@state.co.us edward.vigil.house@state.co.us mckinley@cowboywes.com

Here's the suggested talking points from the PMA:


  • [FONT=Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial]You oppose the bill because it doesn’t help Colorado’s budget, and it will devastate your income. [/FONT]
  • [FONT=Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial]You have a website and you earn an income by providing ads on your website. [/FONT]
  • [FONT=Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial]You advertise, you do not sell. You have nothing to do with any transaction. You don’t take money. You don’t deliver a product. You probably don’t know who the customer is. You advertise and refer traffic to advertisers, that’s it. (this is key to point out, we got hit hard on this at the hearing) [/FONT]
  • [FONT=Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial]Describe a little about your business or web sites (the simplest form of affiliate marketing, let’s stick to that, and if you were in the committee meeting you know what a dark hole that became!) and why affiliate marketing is important to you. [/FONT]
  • [FONT=Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial]If passed, your out-of-state retailers will most likely terminate, like they did in New York, North Carolina and Rhode Island. And your income will be devastated. Overstock already informed you they would. [/FONT]
Go get 'em.
 
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