amazon.com – Page 2

How to support your local blogger this holiday season.

Well, at least the ones that are affiliates with Amazon.com (ahem): if you need to do Christmas shopping and you’re doing it through Amazon.com, find a favorite site that has an Amazon.com link up and click through. It puts a little referral money in your favorite blogger’s pocket and doesn’t cost you any extra. In fact, if you do it often enough, it might, say, bump up a blogger’s percentage of the take up a half-percentage point or so before the end-of-month reset.

You know. Just saying.

Moe Lane

PS: This is non-ideological advice, by the way: if you’re a netrooter reading this site out of hatespite, keep in mind that all but the very largest Lefty blogs are practically starved for revenue.

…Cyber Monday?

Amazon.com has a Cyber Monday? This is an actual thing?

Sorry: it just sounds weird, for some reason. I got the impression that ‘Black Thursday’ really took off when the online shopping thing started seriously eroding the brick-and-mortar stores’ bottom lines; but what, exactly, are the online retailers competing against? Tangible hallucinations?

But far be it from me to avoid a source of filthy lucre…

CYBER MONDAY!!!!!

#rsrh CA Left demands working class pay more sales taxes!

…Wait. What?

A coalition of groups that advocate for the elderly and poor are urging California online shoppers to boycott Amazon.com because of its refusal to collect state sales tax on purchases made through the website.

…Entertaining, isn’t it? After all, actual elderly and poor people (as opposed to the parasitical organizations that ‘organize’ on their behalf) will continue buy stuff on Amazon.com largely for the deals… and to effectively avoid paying sales tax. Sure, you still have to, anyway – technically. But no politician with a measurable IQ wants to start arresting people for evading sales tax on online purchases, because that’s a quick way to become a former politician. And if the Democrats – it’s typically the Democrats who can’t seem to instinctively understand the cold logic involved here – could convince a sufficient number of people that they want to voluntarily pay their sales tax then they wouldn’t be trying to get Amazon.com to do it for them.

So I guess that the boycotters are kind of, well, stuck there.

Via Instapundit, who has… suspicions 0n who’s paying for all of this.

Moe Lane

Full disclosure: I am an Amazon.com Affiliate in Maryland.

#rsrh Amazon ready to end California affiliate program.

A friend and colleague of mine just got this email:

Subject: Notice of Contract Termination Due to Potential New California Law

Hello,

For well over a decade, the Amazon Associates Program has worked with thousands of California residents. Unfortunately, a potential new law that may be signed by Governor Brown compels us to terminate this program for California-based participants. It specifically imposes the collection of taxes from consumers on sales by online retailers – including but not limited to those referred by California-based marketing affiliates like you – even if those retailers have no physical presence in the state.

We oppose this bill because it is unconstitutional and counterproductive. It is supported by big-box retailers, most of which are based outside California, that seek to harm the affiliate advertising programs of their competitors. Similar legislation in other states has led to job and income losses, and little, if any, new tax revenue. We deeply regret that we must take this action.

As a result, we will terminate contracts with all California residents that are participants in the Amazon Associates Program as of the date (if any) that the California law becomes effective. We will send a follow-up notice to you confirming the termination date if the California law is enacted. In the event that the California law does not become effective before September 30, 2011, we withdraw this notice. As of the termination date, California residents will no longer receive advertising fees for sales referred to Amazon.com [ http://www.amazon.com/ ], Endless.com [ http://www.endless.com/ ], MYHABIT.COM [ http://www.myhabit.com/ ] or SmallParts.com [ http://www.smallparts.com/ ]. Please be assured that all qualifying advertising fees earned on or before the termination date will be processed and paid in full in accordance with the regular payment schedule.

You are receiving this email because our records indicate that you are a resident of California. If you are not currently a resident of California, or if you are relocating to another state in the near future, you can manage the details of your Associates account here [ https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/network/your-account/payee-info.html ]. And if you relocate to another state in the near future please contact us [ https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/contact?subject=&ie=UTF8 ] for reinstatement into the Amazon Associates Program.

To avoid confusion, we would like to clarify that this development will only impact our ability to offer the Associates Program to California residents and will not affect their ability to purchase from Amazon.com [ http://www.amazon.com/ ], Endless.com [ http://www.endless.com/ ], MYHABIT.COM [ http://www.myhabit.com/ ] or SmallParts.com [ http://www.smallparts.com/ ].

We have enjoyed working with you and other California-based participants in the Amazon Associates Program and, if this situation is rectified, would very much welcome the opportunity to re-open our Associates Program to California residents. We are also working on alternative ways to help California residents monetize their websites and we will be sure to contact you when these become available.

Regards,

The Amazon Associates Team

Continue reading #rsrh Amazon ready to end California affiliate program.

#rsrh Amazon tax in Illinois ends predictably.

Amazon.com canceled its affiliate program in Illinois. Overstock.com will be doing so on May 1st. Zappos and Shoes.com are in the process of doing the same. Companies that rely on this affiliate program are planning to relocate out of Illinois and somewhere (Wisconsin says hi!) that doesn’t have an Amazon tax. All of this is hardly news: Illinois legislators had this explained to them from the start. They just ignored it, not least because they’re actively courting some of the big-box brick-and-mortar retailers (who are currently having their milkshakes drunk by online retailers).

And note well: none of this will affect the average consumer’s ability to buy stuff from Amazon.com, or any of the other large Internet-based retailers. It merely shuts off state revenue in the form of income tax that Illinois was earlier and effortlessly gathering from in-state retailers. Revenue that will not be made up for by taxing any mild sales increases for, say, Wal-Mart.

Moe Lane Continue reading #rsrh Amazon tax in Illinois ends predictably.

Amazon ended affiliate program in Illinois.

Right on schedule.

It got overshadowed by recent events both foreign and domestic, but last week Governor Pat Quinn (D, IL) signed legislation declaring that in-state affiliates for online sellers count as ‘a physical presence’ in Illinois, thus theoretically allowing the state to require those online sellers to collect sales tax information. This is usually called the ‘Amazon tax*,’ as it is largely aimed at Amazon.com**. This is a long-standing dispute (H/T: Instapundit), and usually ends with the companies in question ending their affiliate programs: Illinois businesses and individuals were however assured (by groups like the Illinois Retail Merchants Association) that there was no chance that Amazon.com would dare end its affiliate program for Illinois***.

Turns out that this was incorrect: as usual in these cases, Amazon.com (and Overstock.com) immediately closed down its affiliate program for Illinois (beginning April 15), thus making the issue moot. This means that no Illinois resident or company will receive a commission for sales – which means lost revenue, which means less taxable revenue for the state of Illinois (Amazon.com requires its affiliates to fill out 1099 forms, and the money that affiliates generate is subject to income tax). It does not mean that Amazon.com itself is forbidden to Illinois: Illinois residents may continue to purchase products from the company – and given its current market share, the lack of affiliate linkage will probably not have any effect on the company’s sales at all. In other words, the state of Illinois has just reduced its annual tax revenue and absolved Amazon.com of the necessity of paying out 4% to 15% commissions on any product indirectly sold on its behalf by a citizen of Illinois.

Brilliant move there, Governor Quinn.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

Continue reading Amazon ended affiliate program in Illinois.

#rsrh Interesting: Illinois’ HB3659 is not yet signed.

That is the Internet sales tax bill that, once signed, will cause Amazon.com to immediately eliminate its affiliate program in Illinois (because Democrats don’t read Aesop, apparently); anyway, it went to the Governor on January 10th, and it still hasn’t been signed yet.

Just put in a call to find out if this is normal; it’ll be interesting if it is not.

[UPDATE] The Governor’s office called back; there’s a sixty day window for Illinois bills after they get sent to his office. If he doesn’t sign within that period, it becomes a law anyway. No time frame on when he’d sign it, if he does, but ten days isn’t anything unusual.

Last minute shopping?

Remember: if your friend or loved one is anything like the people that frequent the Internet then he or she would probably just love an Amazon.com gift card.

For great justice.

Moe Lane

PS: Besides, at this point it’s a brave person who would risk going shopping for presents. Or booze! I did that today: I had remembered that the recipe for mulled wine that we had required, well, wine (plus sweet vermouth, for reasons that elude me), so I went to a liquor store to buy some.

Along with the rest of Maryland, apparently.

#rsrh Maryland considering Amazon tax again?

Yes. Of course. Because Amazon won’t pull their affiliate program out of Maryland – thus making the entire exercise moot – the moment that it passes. Just like they didn’t do it in North Carolina or Rhode Island, and just like they aren’t still thinking about doing it in New York, depending on how the court cases go.

And before I hear about how this won’t have any effect on individual affiliates, so Amazon.com is being absurd:

The bill would require a Web retailer like Amazon.com to charge sales tax on orders to Maryland customers if the retailer gets more than $10,000 in sales a year from affiliate marketers — sites run by businesses or individuals in the state that have contracts to send sales traffic to large retailers.

Ten grand in sales, not profit. That’s small. How small? Let me put it this way: MoeLane.com’s referrals last year would have required Amazon to collect sales tax. Not that I saw ten grand in revenue, or even a tenth of that (and the amount that I did see was duly taxed by the State of Maryland, even though as far as I can tell the State of Maryland didn’t do anything specific to earn its cut). And if these Senatorial idiots Richard S. Madaleno and Ulysses Currie (both Democrats, of course) have their way, I – and the State of Maryland – won’t see a tenth of that tenth, because my Amazon Associates account will be terminated before the ink’s dry on the signature of their shiny new law.

And then nobody gets any money.

My only comfort is that I didn’t actually vote for any of these people. Being a Republican, and everything.

Moe Lane

PS: Full disclosure, in case it isn’t obvious: I am an affiliate of Amazon.com (ahem). At least, for right now.