Comments on: Holy Zappos! New York is Collecting Sales Tax on Online Sales.

By: Kelly

Kelly — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:45:53 +0000

Zwooon, yours is a different issue. If you don’t have a physical presence in other states, you would not be subject to collecting and remitting sales tax. In other words, if you live in PA and happen to sell a DVD to someone in SC, you don’t have to collect and remit the tax for the SC sale. If you sold to me, you would, since I live in PA.

These online retailers often have a presence in more than one state: shipping warehouses, manufacturing facilities, servers. That’s why you may sometimes see a note that says, “Sales Tax applicable in CA, MA, MS and HI” or something like that. The question hinges on presence, not sales.

By: Zwooon

Zwooon — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:02:48 +0000

Had hoped to sell a special limited interest dvd online but I’m bogged down trying to find out how to charge the correct sales tax for each zip code in the U.S., how to submit the tax collected to each state, how to set up PayPal or Google to charge correct sales taxes. Looks like it won’t be worth the effort.

By: Mike

Mike — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 15:15:00 +0000

Looking to do business NY (even as resident of the state) is awful. I am specifically starting an online tee-shirt business and if it weren’t for NY’s screwed up taxes my site would have been launched 4 months ago. Unbelievable…Paterson and NY make everything ridiculously hard. Its know wonder they are running this state into the ground. To use the word leaders in reference to these people – Republican or Democrat – is ludicrous.

By: Amazon.com Did Not Even “Come Close” In Tax Case | taxgirl

Amazon.com Did Not Even “Come Close” In Tax Case | taxgirl — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 13:06:34 +0000

[...] a tax case in New York may shake up the online world as we know it. In April 2008, New York passed a new law targeting online sales and requiring that online retailers collect and remit sales tax to the state. Amazon.com balked at [...]

By: Jen

Jen — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 07:35:50 +0000

This is absurd. I live in NY and at a physical store, there is no tax on shoes or clothing under $100/each. Yet Zappos will charge me tax for shoes under $100. Other sites are smart enough to not charge tax.

By: birdguy

birdguy — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 19:09:14 +0000

I live in NY, used to live in MA. I thought MA charged a lot of taxes, but it’s nothing compared to NY, and with this online sales tax collection, I will not make large online purchases (usually tech items) and ship to the state of NY anymore. There is no big purchase that I MUST have right now, they’re all luxuries. If I must, I will buy them online and have them shipped to MA and pick it up next time I visit my folks. Other large purchases like furniture, I never buy online anyways.

By: Fix the Tax Code Friday: Taxing iTunes and Digital Music

Fix the Tax Code Friday: Taxing iTunes and Digital Music — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 12:13:06 +0000

[...] What’s fairly interesting about my purchases from Apple is while I have purchased a lot music, I have not pay sales tax on those purchases. So far, despite efforts to the contrary, digital music is not taxed by the vendor (yes, yes, yes, there is a separate use tax issue here, but that’s not part of this discussion). And while this feels like “old news”, the subject is making a comeback as online sales of other products come under attack. [...]

By: Ask the taxgirl: Affiliate Advertising, NY and Amazon

Ask the taxgirl: Affiliate Advertising, NY and Amazon — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 12:29:14 +0000

[...] The post that you’re referring to is here. [...]

By: Kevin

Kevin — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 20:46:40 +0000

“Are affiliates the equivalent of virtual door to door salespeople? NY wants to argue yes.”

I wouldn’t think so. Affiliates, as a rule, although residing in New York, don’t “target” New York customers. They, like the merchants, are looking to sell to anyone within the merchants shipping radius.

I think that since New York has specifically stated in the legislation that the presumption of nexus is only valid if in fact a merchant has had $10,000 in sales in the last four tax quarters FROM NY Resident affiliates TO NY customers, that it’s an undue burden placed on the merchant, since that would have to be tracked.

And merchants that use third party networks for their affiliate tracking (very common, with Amazon being a glaring exception) may not even have access to the addresses of their affiliates, if you can believe it. Networks are coming around on providing it though.

At the end of the day, some merchants decided to dump their NY affiliates altogether (offline as well, considering Overstock ended their relationship with Entertainment Book). And a lot of affiliates decided to incorporate elsewhere in order to keep their advertising relationships.

NY may lose as much in income tax as they gain in online sales tax

By: Kelly

Kelly — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 03:37:30 +0000

TexasEd,
What NY is trying to do is expand the definition of presence to include affiliates, etc. If the definition of “vendor” can be successfully broadened, then NY argues, there’s your presence. It will be interesting to see if that argument holds water in court, for sure!