Who is hurt by the Amazon Tax Law?

Amazon of course...but then they have filed suit and have a lot of income to put up a fight. In a sense it is good that New York tried to hit the big guy first because most smaller mom & pop's can't afford to fight such a high profile battle.

The states also know that the small operation can't afford to manage 50 states and thousands of tax jurisdictions so left them out of the fight, for now, by targeting the big operations of Amazon.com by setting a lower limit of $10,000 dollars of sale to New York residents.  Don't think this leaves you off the hook.

Are you a web site owner who earns commissions on banner ads?

Companies are starting to pull the plug and turn your banner ads off line if you live in NY State, eliminating part of your income.

Are you a consumer who shops online?  

Amazon could side step the matter in New York by simply deciding not to sell anything to anyone living in New York. New York gets no money, and you can't buy from Amazon any more. Is this good for anyone?

If other ecommerce companies decide not to hassle with New York and pull the plug on sales to NY's citizens, how many products will no longer be available to you?

Will Brick & Mortar stores stock the variety of goods you can find online today? No. And they won't have to compete in price for what they decide to offer you either.

What if other states follow suit?  How many US Citizens will find their choices and options blocked by companies who opt out of selling in YOUR state to avoid the hassles and expense of trying to comply with 50 different state tax codes?

For those companies who decide to shoulder the expensive burden of compliance, how will they recover the added cost?  By raising prices or adding large "handling charges" to shipments to those states that require tax collection.

Do you shop online and have gifts delivered to an affected state? Would you now have to pay double shipping by having your gifts sent to your address then re-shipped from you to the individual recipient?

Are you a small business owner or home based business selling online ( or over the phone )?

Can you imagine how hard it will be if suddenly you are required to know the individual tax rate in more than 7,500 different jurisdictions in 50 states, then have to calculate the sale tax for each customer based on their location?   If you sell online with checkout, this has to be automated and to date, I don't know of one ecommerce package that can come close to doing this. You simply would not have the physical means to comply and would have to either operate in violation of, perhaps, 50 state laws, stop selling to anyone in a state that demands your compliance or close your online business.  If software does become available it will be costly. It will require a subscription to keep your codes up to date. You will have to manage filing sales tax reports each month in 50 different states. If, as in Florida, this means even if you had no sales at all in any given month you must file paperwork to that effect as well or face penalties.

What happens if you have contractual obligations to clients made prior to these laws? Will they abandon you if you try to up your price to compensate?  Do you have recourse in court?

Are you a shipper?

UPS, FedEx and the US Post Office each earn millions of dollars each year delivering the products sold online. If a majority of these small shops are forced out of business by this type of tax law, each of these companies will loose millions and probably lay off a number of employees.

Are you a web company selling ecommerce solutions?

What if your entire business was dependent on finding and hosting ecommerce web sites. Suddenly the prospect of a very high cost of operation was created by such a law being enforced. How many people would be able to keep their existing web sites? How many new customers can you sell too?

Do you offer Merchant Accounts to small business?

What happens to your customer base if they close their doors?

Are you another "Amazon" ?

While Amazon.com was the primary target, what about eBay and the other big guys?

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