The Colorado government — our legislators and governor — created this mess by its imposition of an “Amazon Tax” with HB 1193. Given its Colorado-based affiliates, that law would have crippled Amazon with an onerous and expensive confusion of red tape, plus a crazy patchwork of local taxes. The only way for Amazon to extricate itself from that nightmare was to terminate the Affiliate Program.

I've posted about it to my blog:

http://www.dianahsieh.com/blog/2010/03/colorado…

And Ari Armstrong has a long post here, with some excellent analysis of the law:

http://blog.ariarmstrong.com/2010/03/stop-amazo…

I've also created a super-quick web site. The “Amazon Tax” must be repealed!

http://www.RepealTheAmazonTax.com/

If you want to help pressure the Colorado legislature to repeal this awful law, please join the low-volume e-mail list, NoAmazonTax:

http://groups.google.com/group/noamazontax

Please spread the word!

– DMH

Diana Hsieh (Ph.D, Philosophy, CU Boulder)
E-mail: diana@dianahsieh.com
NoodleFood: http://www.dianahsieh.com/blog
NoodleCast: http://www.dianahsieh.com/cast

(1) The nonpartisan Colorado Legislative Council indicated in the fiscal note attached to HB10-1193 that the state could reap up to $4.7 million next year in previously uncollected e-commerce taxes.

See 1193sfinappapp_01.pdf for the financial break down.

(2) As I note in today's Daily Digit, states and municipalities are leaving up to $12.65 billion on the tax from uncollected e-commerce sales.

The Colorado government — our legislators and governor — created this mess by its imposition of an “Amazon Tax” with HB 1193. Given its Colorado-based affiliates, that law would have crippled Amazon with an onerous and expensive confusion of red tape, plus a crazy patchwork of local taxes. The only way for Amazon to extricate itself from that nightmare was to terminate the Affiliate Program.

I've posted about it to my blog:

http://www.dianahsieh.com/blog/2010/03/colorado…

And Ari Armstrong has a long post here, with some excellent analysis of the law:

http://blog.ariarmstrong.com/2010/03/stop-amazo…

I've also created a super-quick web site. The “Amazon Tax” must be repealed!

http://www.RepealTheAmazonTax.com/

If you want to help pressure the Colorado legislature to repeal this awful law, please join the low-volume e-mail list, NoAmazonTax:

http://groups.google.com/group/noamazontax

Please spread the word!

– DMH

Diana Hsieh (Ph.D, Philosophy, CU Boulder)
E-mail: diana@dianahsieh.com
NoodleFood: http://www.dianahsieh.com/blog
NoodleCast: http://www.dianahsieh.com/cast

(1) The nonpartisan Colorado Legislative Council indicated in the fiscal note attached to HB10-1193 that the state could reap up to $4.7 million next year in previously uncollected e-commerce taxes.

See 1193sfinappapp_01.pdf for the financial break down.

(2) As I note in today's Daily Digit, states and municipalities are leaving up to $12.65 billion on the tax from uncollected e-commerce sales.