Close Call in Colorado, Confusion in Carolina
Amazon Tax Provision Stripped at 11th Hour, Fight in OK Looms
The Colorado House of Representatives passed an “Amazon tax” provision and it appeared to be heading towards Senate adoption until it was essentially removed by an 11th hour amendment. After passage by New York in 2008 and Rhode Island and North Carolina in 2009, the question was how many states would follow this year. Efforts appeared to have fizzled out in Mississippi and New Mexico; there remains remote a possibility of progress in Maryland, Vermont or Virgina but the new battleground may be Oklahoma where the Governor included such a provision in his budget proposal.
In fairness, the Amazon tax is not a tax per se but rather a redefinition of what constitutes having a presence in the state that is sufficient to require collection of sales taxes under the Commerce and Due Process clauses of the Constitution.
North Carolina’s Department of Revenue has taken an Amazonian stretch in logic in arguing that the 2009 passage of the Amazon tax was merely clarifying existing authority and has sought to collect back taxes from companies terminating North Carolina affiliates. Unfortunately, this argument is contradicted by . . . the North Carolina Department of Revenue which discussed the provision is a release intended to address “major changes enacted by the 2009 Session of the General Assembly to the taxes administered by the Sales and Use Tax Division.”
Info: Oklahoma governor addresses budget concerns, Tulsa World
Vermont Joins Internet Sales Tax Arena, Affiliate Advocacy
Colorado Advertising Tax passes out of Senate Committee, Performance Marketing Association
And Now Virginia Is Seekingan “Amazon Tax” of Its Own, Sales Tax Buzz
Bennet discusses legal and policy issues involved in Amazon tax on February 4th edition of Webcology.
Cyber Report 