Amazon threatens to end affiliate advertising in North Carolina
I’ve always been skeptical as to how much money Amazon Affiliate advertising brings in for all but the biggest players. Instapundit, which has several hundred thousand readers a day, links regularly to Amazon books and reportedly drives a lot of sales that way (he’s helped books’ sales ranks skyrocket), and I don’t doubt that he probably generates a nice side income, but anecdotal evidence I’ve seen shows that Amazon Affiliate marketing brings in even less income than Google Adsense for most blogs.
Either way, North Carolina is thinking about taking a crack at taxing those click-through sales, which has left Amazon threatening to remove affiliate ads for those who live there:
This week Amazon.com, Inc. wrote its North Carolina affiliates to explain that if a suggested “click-through” tax passes, the bookselling giant could end the affiliate program in the state–cutting out website owners who earn money by featuring Amazon books on their site.
According to the News Record, the state legislature proposed $784 million in new taxes to meet a budget shortfall, including a “click-through” tax on Internet sales that could earn the state $13.2 million in a single year. If that tax change passes, then the online retailer could end the affiliate program in North Carolina.
My dear old home state has had it’s share of hare brained legislators in the past and apparently there is still an abundant supply in state capital building now.
Case in point: Our state has one of the lowest avg incomes rankings, one of the lowest education rankings in the US. We also have one of the highest unemployment and home forclosure rates. Not much to brag about, huh?
Ironically, we also have one of the highest paid governors legislative bodies in the US.
In their attempts to cut the budget, not once has one of these overpaid politicians (already rich in their own right) suggested a cut in pay for the governor or the state legislature.
While they pocket their exhorbitant salaries, they cut the education budget, freezing wages of teachers and support staff and lay off teachers and support personnel in our school system. They continuously search for loopholes in the education lottery bill–which was supposed to supplement an already too small budget so our kids could get a decent education–so they can use the funds to cover the budget deficits created by their own mismanagement of our tax dollars.
Our darlin’ legislators wouldn’t dream of giving up one cent of their nice hefty paychecks to help their state. Yet they are ready and willing to deprive the residents of the right to supplement their own meager incomes with affiliate sales.
The one bright spot in this whole mess is that our hare-brained legislators have “cut their own throats” as well as our own, this time.
Since NC residents have been denied the opportunity to supplement their meager incomes with affiliate sales by Amazon because of this rediculous new law, (a measure that I have no doubt all the other companies on the internet will take as well) the legislature won’t get one cent of revenue from the new law AND they will lose approximately 14.3 million per year in taxes already being paid on affiliate earnings by NC residents.
So it seems to me as if all our darlin’ legislators have really done in passing this rediculous law is give the residents of NC two options.
One, We can just keep hoping and praying that:
-Our companies don’t layoff a few hundred employees or put thousands out of work when they shut down permanently
-Our kids suddenly develop a knack for achieving high scores on their SAT’s despite the fact that they are being taught by overworked and underpaid teachers without adequate supplies and materials.
-We can find another way to earn some extra money so we don’t lose our homes.
Or two, we can pack up and move to a state where people have not been deprived of their rights to earn an honest wage and children are still entitled to receive a good education.
Just one NC resident’s humble opinion,
Kathy