AffiliateBOT

Looks like the affiliate industry is gaining ground on some fronts in its battle to confront the various proposed legislations on institutionalizing the affiliate sales tax.

Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle has vetoed a bill legislation that would have forced online retailers to collect and pay taxes on their affiliate programs within the state. The good governor justified her decisidion by saying, "I am vetoing this bill immediately to help ensure Hawai'i is not economically hurt by legislation that was not well thought-out and would have negative consequences for non-profits such as the University of Hawai'i bookstore, and businesses throughout our State."

Displaying steely confidence, California "Governator" Arnold Schwarzenegger followed suit in vetoing legislation that would have passed measures to require Web-based sellers to collect sales tax if they have affiliates in the state. Governator made this bold decision for his state despite the worsening budget crisis saying, "it makes absolutely no sense to go back to the taxpayers to solve the current shortfall". As a show of appreciation though, Overstock.com Inc. immediately responded by saying that it has reversed its own decision to cancel affiliate relationships in the state.

Well, one wonders how well online marketers can use the web to get other politicians to change their minds about these taxes. With such recent successes, I guess we need to keep on calling the attention of our legislators to how such poorly though of taxation could do more damage than good. Hopefully, New York, Rhode Island and North Carolina would follow suit in reversing the affiliate tax law proposal.

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