[LoneWolf]

I'm located in Canada (the province of Ontario to be specific) and I was wondering how this affects us up here in the frozen north.

Canadian Affiliates

First of all, from what I understand the only impact on affiliates would be the possibility of merchants closing their affiliate programs in states where these laws are passed. So until Ontario (or whatever province the affiliate lives in) decides to do this affiliate should be okay (unless the merchants drop affiliate programs completely).

Am I correct in this line of thinking?

Also, is there any inkling of similar laws being enacted in Canada?

Canadian Merchants

Would a merchant located in Canada need to collect the sales tax for the state? Would this impact the company's tax status with the IRS as well? In other words, would affiliates mean that they are conducting business in the US?

[CanadianDave]

LoneWolf,

From what I have seen/read, we have more to worry about how our Government views our activities than any US State tax laws. There were a few threads a while back about CRA making Canadian affiliates get GST numbers and pay GST on their affiliate income. I am pretty sure it was only commissions produced within Canada but my memory of thread is not that good.

You do raise a good question though about how this will be represented in the US/Canadian tax treaty...

[Chuck Hamrick]

LoneWolf, I am no tax expert but it looks like you are excluded from the US tax issue. If you have sites that sell US products to US consumers they you would be a welcome part of those affiliate programs. Some of my biggest affiliates are Canadians that only sell to US consumers. We have long requested that our US based merchants open sales in Canada but even with NAFTA it is difficult to ship north.

[MichaelColey]

Moderator Note: I've split out the GST discussion to a separate thread: Do Canadian Affiliates have to pay GST on earnings?