[gcarson]

I saw this article in the USA Today about the new tax law in California. I thought it did a decent job of explaining the new law. But it seemed to stop short of saying that no new taxes would be collected via affiliates since Amazon, Overstock and others would eliminate local affiliates.

Web retailers end some California relationships - USATODAY.com

This statement is comical at best:

"This is going to help mom and pop retailers tremendously," said Bill Dombrowski, CEO of the California Retailers Association.

One thing I really don't agree with and I think makes Overstock and others look bad is this comment:

The law is unfair for firms that don't get benefits from California sales taxes, says Michael Griffin, general counsel at Utah-based Overstock, which now calls itself O.co. "If our corporate offices caught fire, we're not going to call the Sacramento fire department to put out the fire," he says.

Am I missing something here? Its not a tax that Overstock pays. The citizens of California pay it and those citizens get fire protection.

IMO, when the original tax law was formed that you had to have a nexus in the state, no one expected people to be buying so much from out of state retailers. Things have changed and the tax laws need to change as well. But I don't think these patchwork laws from each state are the way to go either.

[Chuck Hamrick]

Moved to a better forum.

This is almost a form letter format article. Don't think it will make a difference to CA voters or to their tax revenue!

[gcarson]

Former Gov Davis was just on Bloomberg this morning and the reporter asked about this tax. His opinion was it will never be overturned legislatively or by the courts.