New Yorkers now have to pay sales tax on Amazon.com products. They have to do it because Amazon pays some website owners to link to their products. Usually this is just a 4-5% commission.
Why do they do this? It is very shortsighted. If Amazon can’t beat this legally, they may have to end the affiliate program in NY. This would mean that not only does NY not get their sales tax, they don’t get any income tax from Amazon. NY is already one of the most heavily taxed states in the US. Doing things like forming LLC’s is the most complex and expensive.
As an Amazon affiliate, I would like to forgo all my income from NY’ers. NY is only 6.3% of the US population. I would reduce my Amazon income by 6.3% to make a point. Would you? I live in Western NY and the sales tax is 8.75% It seems fair to my Western NY peeps.
