California Gov. Brown Signs Job-Killing Internet Tax into Law

Stop eTaxes ^ | 2011-07-01 | Kaitlyn Ewing

[Hoodat]

Well, they should make a law that people can’t leave the state,

I think they once tried something like that in East Germany.

[Hodar]

Sorry to hear about this, Bob.

I was thinking the Affiliates were the ‘New and Used’ dealers; some of which are faily sizeable companies - or so I thought.

Still, Amazon is capitalistic in nature; it doesn’t matter where you are located, you can ship from anywhere to anywhere. When California is in the budget shortfall they are in; a wise man would do what he could to STIMULATE the economy, not slow economic growth by instituting additional dis-incentives (ie. taxes).

[AnotherUnixGeek]

I’ll also state the obvious. The “revenue” this was projected to bring in will actually be a loss due to companies terminating affiliates and said affiliates moving out of state for friendlier climates.

And there's the original issue of the sales tax on consumers - Democrats see numbers under the caption "Lost Revenue" and assume they can magically tax it all into their cauldron of handouts for public employee unions. But people will simply stop buying from Amazon and start buying from out-of-state web sites which have no presence in California at all (Amazon has development offices in the Bay Area for the Kindle, among other things).

High taxes are tolerable when the economy is roaring along - but the economy is horrible and many people are struggling to make ends meet. Even though California Amazon buyers are supposed to report and pay taxes on their purchases, buying from Amazon has become a way for millions of people to save money, and if that avenue of savings is cut off, they'll just look for another.

This is what over-taxation and bad tax laws lead to - a society in which attempts to evade taxes become commonplace and disrespect for the law grows.

[Bob]

I was thinking the Affiliates were the ‘New and Used’ dealers; some of which are faily sizeable companies - or so I thought.

Since I really don't have any solid stats to back up my gut feel on this, I could easily be way off in my view of Amazon affiliates. Because Amazon did make it very easy to join their affiliate program, I know a lot of people like me who jumped in to make a little money on-the-side. While it wasn't a lot of money per-person, with as many affiliates as Amazon had, the combined loss of state income tax revenue could be significant.

Still, Amazon is capitalistic in nature; it doesn’t matter where you are located, you can ship from anywhere to anywhere. When California is in the budget shortfall they are in; a wise man would do what he could to STIMULATE the economy, not slow economic growth by instituting additional dis-incentives (ie. taxes).

Liberal "thought": Need more money? Simple, raise taxes. When the tax revenue decreases, wonder why that happened. While it happens every time it's tried, they still keep trying it.

[tflabo]

[funfan]

Boeing

[TexasRepublic]

I predict that sooner or later, state and Federal interference with business will extend to the agricultural sector, causing food shortages, higher prices and ultimately starvation. This is the final outcome anywhere Communism is tried.