[cowboysfan]

Connecticut Affiliates,

We need your help to fight the advertising tax in Connecticut! You can
show your support by sending emails opposing the advertising tax. We
have provided all the information you need below to make it more
convenient for you. We appreciate your time with this important and
time sensitive matter.

Below are 2 emails for the Under Secretary and the Legislative Liaison
members. By sending this out today you can help make a difference for
Connecticut.

Email Your at the addresses below if you send an email to Sue Sherman
please ask her to “tell the commissioner”.

Gian–Carl Casa
Under Secretary
Office of Policy & Management
Giancarl.casa@ct.gov

Sue Sherman
Dep. of Revenue Services
Legislative Liaison
susan.sherman@po.state.ct.us

Below are 2 tools to help you: talking points if you want to create
your own letter/email, and a complete template. There are a lot of
reasons to oppose this bill, but we believe these simple points
matter
most to legislators.

Talking Points:
Be extremely polite and respectful. Do not express your frustration
over the bill or the process.

Highlights to keep in mind:

- You oppose the bill because it doesn’t help Connecticut’ budget, and
it
will devastate your income.

- You have a website and you earn an income by providing ads on your
website.

- Describe a little about your business or web sites (in simplest
terms) and why affiliate marketing is important to you.

- If passed, your out-of-state retailers will terminate, like they
did
in New York, North Carolina and Rhode Island. And your income will be
devastated.

- End with a direct request: Please do not support HB 5543
because
it will devastate my small business. Sincerely...

Email Template:

Subject: I oppose HB 5543 - internet referral nexus bill

Dear [ ]:

I strongly oppose HB 5543, the dealer registration tax bill. If
this
bill passes, the state will NOT gain additional taxes, and my small
business income will be devastated in the process.

My income is earned by selling advertising on web sites.
[recommended:
insert a few words describing your websites, and why affiliate
marketing is important to you – keep it simple!]

This bill claims that by advertising on my websites, out-of-state
retailers will be forced to collect sales tax from Connecticut
citizens. But the bill misses one very critical out-of-state
retailers will simply stop advertising on my websites to avoid having
to collect sales tax – and my income will be devastated.

This isn’t an idle threat, my peers in NY, NC and RI had their online
advertising businesses nearly wiped out overnight when hundreds of
retailers terminated their advertising agreements when similar laws
passed. I am certain they will terminate me if the law passes here.
If passed, this law would wipe out my business and still not collect
any new sales tax dollars because the out-of-state merchants would
not
have nexus because they terminated me.

I urge you reject HB 5543. It will not earn any additional tax
revenue
for Connecticut, and it will damage my business in the process.

Sincerely,

Thanks for your support!

[cowboysfan]

I'm sorry: please refer to the bill as "HB 5543" instead of "Bill 5543" in your emails.

[pmassociation]

Hi CowboysFan,

Thank you for your efforts in spreading the news! We appreciate everything you're doing. The reason we don't post the letters up on ABW directly is because we don't want the opposition to view what we are doing and do the same. We've seen this happen several times that's why we're very contained about it. Thanks again!