The People Of California Win Again With The Amazon Tax!

by John Hawkins | July 13, 2011 5:27 am

As we’ve learned from liberals, corporations are evil entities that must be punished relentlessly with high taxes which they will never, ever, ever react to by changing their behavior. Bizarre though it may seem to rational people, you can simply bludgeon corporations into the ground without any consequences whatsoever…or so liberals seem to believe.

……Which brings us to the liberal Mecca of California and its brilliant Amazon tax! Starting Friday of last week, the law required “large out-of-state retailers to collect sales taxes[1] on purchases that their California customers make on the Internet.”

As Sister Toldjah has noted, the tax caused a wee bit of a backlash![2]

From Board of Equalization member and former state senator George Runner, here’s a list of the businesses that have ended their affiliate programs in California:

6pm.com
Amazon.com
Audible.com
B&H Photo & Electronics Corp.
Backcountry
Barware.com
Beach Trading Co.
BeautyBar.com
BedBathStore
Benchmark Brands Inc.
CSN Stores
Diapers.com
Drugstore.com
Endless.com
Fabric.com
Gaiam
GiftBaskets.com
Hayneedle
Higher Power Inc.
Lacrosse.com
Muscle and Strength
MyHabit.com
Northern Tool
Overton’s
Overstock.com
PC Connection
Potpourri Group
Quidsi
ShindigZ.com
Shoebuy, Inc.
Shopbop
SmallParts.com
Soap.com
The Tire Rack
Thinkgeek.com
Total Gym
Wine Enthusiast
Woot.com
Zappos.com

Be sure to check out Runner’s post for some choice quotes from now-former affiliates.

Not only will Sacramento not collect any new sales tax money from these companies, but it has lost all the income tax revenue it was already collecting from the affiliates at a time when California is suffering from record debt and deficits. And it will hurt those families and small businesses making a bit of money from their affiliate relationships.

Wow, that’s a heck of a list. Don’t these businesses know that they’re supposed to mutely soldier on as they’re pillaged by the government of California without reacting in any way, shape, or form that would reduce the projected revenue coming into the state of California?

By the way, here are a few of those quotations compiled by the Flash Report[3] that Sister Toldjah mentioned in her post. They make for grim reading.

[We’re considering] everything from layoffs, at least a freeze in hiring -and we’re a business that has been growing and hiring over the last few years-, all the way up to leaving the state. — Rob Smahl, Ebates.com

A number of merchants have let us know that as long as we remain a California affiliate, they cannot do business with us, so we are looking into alternatives, including moving some or all of our operations out of state and changing the way we do business. Without this, we’d be growing rapidly in San Francisco. — Oliver Roup, founder of VigLink

So far we have received termination notifications from just over 100 of our merchant partners. However, we expect this number to increase over the coming weeks as more merchants receive word from their legal teams that they must sever their ties with California affiliates. — Alex Caldwell, SurfMyAds.com

Great job, libs! I’m sure states like Texas and Arizona will appreciate all the new revenue and entrepreneurs that you’ll be sending their way!

Endnotes:
  1. collect sales taxes: http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jun/30/business/la-fi-amazon-tax-20110630
  2. wee bit of a backlash!: http://sistertoldjah.com/archives/2011/07/12/californias-amazon-tax-a-collossal-bust/
  3. Flash Report: http://www.flashreport.org/blog/2011/07/11/the-amazon-tax-already-a-failure/

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