72 Kilowatts Internet Marketing

Noise where we go, but quiet elsewhere

As affiliate marketers, we’ve been exposed to the NY tax information virtually non stop over the last few weeks.  In digging around, however, I’m surprised how few of the small business forums have touched on this topic.

I suppose there are a couple of reasons.

First being the fact that this was bandied about as the Amazon tax by the New York legislature.  That makes it sound like an internet only tax situation, which really couldn’t be further from the truth.  Overstock evidenced this when they dropped their relationship with Entertainment Book.  It doesn’t get much more “old school” than a book full of coupons.

Second, there aren’t a set of attorneys with the total skill set to understand what’s happening here.  As such, I’m not sure most merchants have even the FAINTEST clue that this is happening.  They aren’t being asked the right questions, and therefore aren’t turning around and asking the right questions publicly.

One thing I don’t know is how New York identifies and contacts all of these merchants to inform them of law changes.  Is the burden on the merchant to just know?  I’d be curious to know if any of you have insight on that.

So what I’m saying is that we can’t count on the silence we’re hearing from a lot of merchants (of the 10k plus programs I believe exist, I think I’ve heard comments from under 50) being a prelude to action.  It might still simply be ignorance.