Those of you who used my Amazon affiliate link (which used to be below this blog post) will notice that it has disappeared. Effective today, Amazon has cancelled the affiliate program for Minnesotans (and several other states) where legislation has been passed declaring that bloggers who use affiliates constitute a “physical presence” in Minnesota and therefore sales tax must be collected for any internet sales.
Now, I’m all for making companies pay their due taxes, but this law is stupid. I am not an Amazon employee. No amount of logical contortions can make the idea that me drawing a comic strip in my apartment constitutes a physical presence for Amazon.com in this state. That is just plain absurd, and so I’ll miss my $50 or whatever a month I got from it, but I understand why they did it.
Thanks, however, to everybody who did use those links (especially around the holidays!). As a poor grad student, they were a nice something extra.
I’ve added Apple App Store/iTunes links to try them out for the time being. If you buy stuff through them, click through those links, and I get a kickback at no cost to you.
Is your problem with Amazon, or is it really with your state government? Get like minded people together, petition your representative, change the law.
Well, the Marketplace Fairness Act ihas been passed by the (US) Senate, and it would undo the stupid part, in theory. I’m throwing my effort behind that. http://www.marketplacefairness.org