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Tax Haven //// Site Index New York unfair tax on affiliates New York is a great place I'm sure, and famous for many things. It seems beyond sensible belief that a place as well clued-up a business centre as New York, should do something approximating to economic suicide by putting a tax on affiliates that live in that region. At a time when places are keen to compete with each other to be the best tax haven and to attract the most business, New York has introduced a bizarre form of "sales tax" which unfairly prejudices people who are in the affiliate business, in New York! Although initially the tax may have seemed a sensible idea, to grab more money, the result is likely to be a disaster. For one thing, affiliates are likely to leave New York! Like the business of escape to a tax haven, affiliates will up-sticks and migrate to other places. Also, affiliate merchants are unable to levy the tax on New York affiliates and so they are in effect ceasing to allow New York affiliates on their affiliate programs! One of the first companies to do this was Amazon. They said that no-longer would anyone be allowed to be on the Amazon Associate Program if they lived in New York. As well as being Not Fair, it's also economically disastrous, as it will put New York at a severe disadvantage financially. That's not to say the place will go broke, but it will almost certainly end up losing a lot of money because of it. It's not just money it will lose, but folks too. As with the Tax Haven situation, once people have emigrated and escaped, they generally don't come back! People vote with their feet (like the way people are leaving the UK!), and then the places that have too much tax are left without some of the most prosperous people. Here are a few other websites that have something to say about the New York Tax: http://forum.abestweb.com/forumdisplay.php?f=503 http://blog.affiliatetip.com/archives/new-york-affiliate-tax-recap/ - now LinkShare isn't happy about it! www.marketingpilgrim.com/2008/05/merchants-ban-affiliates-based-on-new-york-tax.html http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/14/overstockcom-throws-new-york-affiliates-overboard-to-avoid-sales-tax/ - look, that's at the New York Times http://www.law.com/jsp/legaltechnology/pubArticleLT.jsp?id=1202427278716 ...and others to be added. Really, the folk who make up the laws in New York should reconsider and repeal this absurd law, because if not it will come back to bite them, for sure. Ooh look, here's another US state, Rhode Island, looking like committing economic suicide as well!...
...so admittedly this is sad for affiliates who happen to live in Rhode Island, but the people who will really miss out are the people who run Rhode Island. They've put their own economy at a disadvantage. This type of thing is like Nevada deciding to ban gambling. Such a move would not be good for the local economy there. It would turn Las Vegas into a ghost town. In a way the problem of imposing local tax on affiliates is a bit like the regional assumption, because it represents a failure to understand that The Internet is The International NET and is visible across the world in a global economy. With tax being too high in the UK, Zyra is emigrating to Panama, which is a tax haven. |