Colorado Legislation - Affiliate #Advertisingtax

[Melanie]

Last night Colorado had a second reading and voice vote on HB1193, their version of Internet sales tax. It passed the voice vote. The next step is the recorded vote; this should happen next week. Once it passes the recorded vote in the House of Representatives it will move onto the Senate.

In the Senate it will go through similar steps (initial reading & refer to committee; committee vote and send back to Senate floor; second reading then third reading...) If it passes all that it then moves on to the Governor.

[Linda Buquet]

In spite of a valiant effort from the affiliate marketing community, the Colorado house has passed HB1193. The industry banded together and did an excellent job of rallying to fight yet another state's misguided attempt to boost sales tax coffers via a bill that will significantly impact the livelihood of affiliate marketers.

But its not over and there are other opportunities to fight this bill!
HB1193 now has to move on to the Senate. The PMA reports:

Colorado House Passes Bill that Threatens to Devastate Affiliates

The political momentum in Colorado coupled with the looming and fast paced deadlines for voting on House Bill 1193 is threatening to decimate the affiliate marketing community in the Rocky Mountain State.

Like many other states, Colorado is now fast tracking a misguided bill that would classify affiliates as sales representatives for out of state merchants. This would establish nexus for those merchants and force them to begin collecting sales tax from all consumers in that state. Rather than going through that complex tax collection process merchants will simply terminate their relationship with affiliates in Colorado. Online retailer Overstock already announced it will terminate all affiliate relationships in Colorado and other merchants WILL follow suit.

(If you aren't yet familiar with the various state tax legislation issues that are threatening the affiliate marketing industry, please take a moment to learn more here: What is the Advertising Tax?)

Last week Colorado affiliates, the PMA, Affiliate Advocacy, AbestWeb members and numerous affiliate bloggers all worked together and tried their best to inform the industry and rally the troops. Many of the industry leaders at the PMA and Affiliate Advocacy are torn in several directions trying to head off legislation in several other states at the same time.

Melanie from Affiliate Advocacy tells CO affiliates what they can expect next and what they need to do to prepare. Colorado Legislation Moves To Senate

And the PMA is organizing more grassroots efforts to stop in it's tracks.
Get involved here: About Colorado: Preparing for the next steps

[Linda Buquet]

Due to extensive efforts by Colorado affiliate marketers, the PMA and Melanie from AffiliateAdvocacy,
the Colorado Advertising Tax is Dead!!!!

Way to go to everyone that worked so hard to kill this bill!

[Brasco]

Let me preface first that I produce the Inboxed Radio Show on WebmasterRadio.FM

I was going through this thread where it ended saying the tax did not pass, but didn't the law get enacted after all.

On last night's program, Kevin de Vincenzi and Bennett Kelley were discussing HB1193. They referred to this letter they learned about:

From: “Amazon.com Associates Program”
Date: March 8, 2010 1:07:36 AM MST
Subject: Important Notice from the Amazon Associates Program

Dear Colorado-based Amazon Associate:

We are writing from the Amazon Associates Program to inform you that the Colorado government recently enacted a law to impose sales tax regulations on online retailers. The regulations are burdensome and no other state has similar rules. The new regulations do not require online retailers to collect sales tax. Instead, they are clearly intended to increase the compliance burden to a point where online retailers will be induced to “voluntarily” collect Colorado sales tax — a course we won’t take.

We and many others strongly opposed this legislation, known as HB 10-1193, but it was enacted anyway. Regrettably, as a result of the new law, we have decided to stop advertising through Associates based in Colorado. We plan to continue to sell to Colorado residents, however, and will advertise through other channels, including through

Associates based in other states.

There is a right way for Colorado to pursue its revenue goals, but this new law is a wrong way. As we repeatedly communicated to Colorado legislators, including those who sponsored and supported the new law, we are not opposed to collecting sales tax within a constitutionally-permissible system applied even-handedly. The US Supreme Court has defined what would be constitutional, and if Colorado would repeal the current law or follow the constitutional approach to collection, we would welcome the opportunity to reinstate Colorado-based Associates.

You may express your views of Colorado’s new law to members of the

General Assembly and to Governor Bill Ritter

Thought I'd pass this along.

[Melanie]

You caught only this old thread started in January, There were several others that spoke about the changed law, the potential impact and then the impact. I'll go get some of the new threads and post links for you.

[Linda Buquet]

Thanks Brasco for that info.

Sorry I started a new thread that continued on with CO and should have come back to post it her for continuity sake. Plus we have threads about it up in the Aff Advocacy and PMA sub forums.

Amazon Terminates Thousands of Affiliates - Uses Them to Fight CO Sales Tax #noadtax

Thanks for bringing to my attention.

[Melanie]

Here's two more threads and since Linda posted that one I can stop. I will make sure I go back and finalize old threads as well to help avoid confusion. We've been so busy in dealing with the aftermath, it's been a hectic couple of weeks.


If You Sell in Colorado 3/3

What Will Guide You 3/8

[Linda Buquet]

Ya and this is just one of many states activity is happening with.
It's just crazy!

Thank for the links Melanie!d

[Brasco]

Oh, I could imagine, affiliate marketers are ONLY fighting for their livelihood.