[flamingoworld]

According to their testimony last Wednesday in the MN House Tax Committee, Target and Best Buy support the Nexus Tax.

Forward to 01:08 on the video to see their reasoning:

http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/htv...xesA022311.asx

[Witzer]

Originally Posted by flamingoworld

According to their testimony last Wednesday in the MN House Tax Committee, Target and Best Buy support the Nexus Tax.

Not very surprising. Both are headquartered in MN. Mn sales tax will have no effect on their Mn sales. They already collect the tax.

They both also have a physical presence in all states.....

[Vinny O'Hare]

At the 119 mark Best Buy said that NO NY affiliates were dropped. That is an outright lie.

Doubt I will ever shop in a Best Buy again.

[markwelch]

It doesn't matter where they're headquartered. They must collect sales tax for any state where they have a store* -- I don't know if that's all 50 states, but it's a lot.

For merchants like Best Buy and Target, "sales tax unfairness" is a smoke-screen, since they all know that no additional sales tax will be collected.

They benefit each time a state enacts an "advertising nexus tax law," because when Amazon terminates its advertising relationships with in-state publishers, those publishers turn to other advertisers.

*/ Some national chains (like Barnes & Noble) sought to avoid collecting sales tax by pretending that their online operations were separate companies. That tactic hasn't worked for most merchants (it's hard to defend the "separate company" argument when they have aggressive in-store promotions for online purchases and store kiosks to use to place online orders -- even before the rise of in-store pickup or "ship to store").

[NiftyGaloot]

Does anyone know how many merchants dropped NY affiliates?

BTW - Good job Connie and Carrie on speaking during the hearing! Thank you both!
(32.00 in the clip)

[Convergence]

Few things I'd like to throw in, some obvious and some not so obvious:

• Laura Bishop, Senior Director of Gov. Affairs for Best Buy said that the State of Minnesota is losing $250MM in uncollected Tax Revenue from online sales.
  
• Minnesota's State tax rate is 6.875%.
  
• $250MM in sales taxes based on that tax rate is 3.64 BILLION dollars in sales. This may be accurate for what the good people of Minnesota are spending online - but NO WAY is that all through online publishers.

Throwing numbers around like a quarter of a billion dollars gets the uneducated lawmakers and uneducated citizens salivating and thinking "This is the answer to our financial woes".

How many earning publishers are there in Minnesota?

• Estimated population of Minnesota is 5.3MM
  
• 2005 estimates say 72.2% of adult are in the labor force, or about: 3.8MM (72% of 2010 population estimates).
  
• Sales and other office make up 26% of the 3.8MM, or about 1MM in that sector.

Easy enough to argue that no way are there 1MM publishers in Minnesota. If someone had a good estimate of publishers in Minnesota then it would be easier to show just how insignificant their sales numbers are in respect to the stated $250MM of uncollected sales taxes.

The Minnesota Retailers Association and the Brick & Mortar retailers want to maintain the competitive advantage they have on the streets. Target and Best Buy don't give a damn about 'main street retailers'. If they did, they wouldn't try to undercut their competitor's prices. Target and Best Buy would would be just as happy if they were the only Brick & Mortar retailers available - they want to take out the online competition as well so they start spewing 'fairness'.

Does anyone for a minute think Walmart cares about their competitors - You know their lobbyists are lurking somewhere.

Time for a change.

• We are not affiliates, we are not a nexus.
• We are publishers, just like a magazine, radio station, and the Google. If the states want to take on the Google, let them, I welcome them to the fray. What if the Google decides that online advertisers in states with an Advertising Tax must pay a higher rate to promote their products online?
• Instead of a flat rate for sending traffic to an ADVERTISER, ie: online retailer/website, they, the online retailer/website, has agreed to pay for their advertising on a performance basis.
• Affiliate Networks need to now call themselves Advertising Networks.
• There should no longer be a term called 'Affiliate Marketing'.

[Convergence]

Originally Posted by NiftyGaloot

BTW - Good job Connie and Carrie on speaking during the hearing! Thank you both!
(32.00 in the clip)

Originally Posted by Convergence

• We are not affiliates, we are not a nexus.
• We are publishers, just like a magazine, radio station, and the Google.

I had posted above before I knew Connie had spoken.

Agree, well spoken Connie not using the term 'affiliate'.

[flamingoworld]

Originally Posted by NiftyGaloot

Does anyone know how many merchants dropped NY affiliates?

BTW - Good job Connie and Carrie on speaking during the hearing! Thank you both!
(32.00 in the clip)

Next time i know to bring water, i was soo dry from being nervous. And next time after a good stiff drink will help. Which means March 2nd.

[flamingoworld]

Stats on MN:

There are 4,200 affiliates in MN.
They earned $290 million in 2009, in advertising revenue.
They paid $20 million in state income tax in 2009.

[bibby]

I emailed Senator Limmer who is on the Senate Tax Committee and notofied him of Best Buy or should I say Best Lie. I've been in contact with him, since I'm in his district. He also knows his House of Representative counterparts very well.

I asked him to reach out to his coleagues in the House of Representatives.

If anyone still has emails where merchants dropped NY affilaites please send them my way to anthonyloch at comcast.net.

I can then send them to Senator Limmer as evidence.

[flamingoworld]

It would be nice if we could get statements from any merchants that if the bill passes they will drop MN publishers. Or even a statement that they have dropped publishers in states where it passed. Or even a list if anyone has compiled one would be helpful.

[Convergence]

Originally Posted by flamingoworld

Stats on MN:

There are 4,200 affiliates in MN.
They earned $290 million in 2009, in advertising revenue.
They paid $20 million in state income tax in 2009.

Any stats on what the sales volume was for those merchants through publishers?

Would like to calculate the sales tax revenue and compare it to the $20 million in state income tax paid.

Example, if the average commission rate was 5% then the sales would have been approx. $305MM and subsequent sales tax collected about $21MM. That would offset the $20MM in state income tax but the state would then have higher unemployment payments, etc. if advertisers terminated all the publishers. Leaving a net gain of $1MM.

$1MM is a far cry from $250MM.

Course

This does NOT take into consideration any sales taxes already collected by merchants like Target and Best Buy who already have a physical presence - in which case the $1MM net 'gain' would be much lower.

This also does not take into consideration the merchants who will fight this on a Federal level based on the unconstitutionality of any such laws (as is being done in Colorado) and who will NOT pay the state any sales tax.

It is imperative that solid numbers are gathered in order to offset / defend against any claimed benefits from the likes of the state, Target, Best Buy, etc.

[Convergence]

Another thing to offset any 'gain' the state thinks they will have is to get numbers on what it will cost the state to enforce and collect sales taxes from out of state merchants.

[Vinny O'Hare]

Go look and try to sign up as an affiliate with Tirerack they don't even allow people from ny to sign up About TireRack.com Affiliate Program

[NiftyGaloot]

Windows Media Player Video of today's hearing of SF458 (affiliate nexus) in the Tax Committee is at:

mms://stream2.video.state.mn.us/Senate/cmte_taxes_030211.wmv

Go to 28:00 for the start of the nexus hearing.

Thank you Connie, for being there and doing a good job of representing affiliate adevrtisers.

[Georgie Peri]

Did you know BestBuy is also a affiliate with tons of merchants?

onlinemall.myrewardzone.bestbuy *dot* com