Imagine my surprise yesterday, when a fellow New York Affiliate shared the news that he had been dumped by several merchants due to the NY Internet sales tax law. These merchants included the Crayola Store. What I found interesting about Herb’s post about the terminations is that I am in Crayola’s  program and this was the first I was hearing about it. Guess I should say I was in their program. I checked my email box and didn’t find an email. Thinking Herb must be wrong, I logged into CJ.

There, in my internal mail box is the notice from Crayola indicating that due to the “recent law” they are terminating all affiliates in New York, North Carolina and Rhode Island. Now to give credit to Crayola, they did give notice and warning about the termination ( just wish it had been emailed to my regular email). Lesson learned, check internal email more frequently.

Not sure why they feel it necessary to remove NY  Affiliates almost two years after the law took effect and RI/NC Affiliates almost a year after the law was passed.  Probably just a matter of time before they terminate Colorado Affiliates. But, as we all know, there are plenty of merchants who carry crayons and other art supplies.

In fact, if you are a merchant who sells crayons and art supplies for children and who welcomes NY, NC, RI and Co Affiliates, and want to get the word out, get in touch with me through Twitter. I will list you here right in the body of this post. You must welcome and accept Affiliates from ALL four states ( I will need to verify).

Earlier today I announced a name change for Affiliate Voice LLC.  Although the name has changed my work remains the same.

For almost two years I have advocated on behalf of the industry, first as NY Affiliate Voice then more formally as Affiliate Voice LLC. I have made the decision to change the name  to Affiliate Advocacy. The new domain will be http://affiliateadvocacy.com.  All sponsorships and memberships moved.

My focus remains as it has always been; working to improve our industry and advocating for affiliate industry.

In addition to the name change, the Board of Directors has been dissolved.  I will continue to rely on others for input and advice, but for now I believe we should focus on building the foundation before running ahead of ourselves. Everyone can continue to email me direct, as they have been, with questions and concerns. 

All of my activities and advocacy work will continue. These activities include the webinars and education calls, monitoring Internet tax issues, and the work on our other projects including the Terms of Service Template. As always, should you wish to help on our projects just contact me.

The Internet sales tax  or advertising tax news from North Carolina is not encouraging. Legislators in North Carolina continue to work on the budget and the latest version still includes the modernized nexus definition. As I mentioned in earlier posts, both Senate and Representatives are embracing the revision of the new  definition of retailer that would require out of state merchants to collect and remit sales tax; both included it in their proposals. The Governor also embraces the concept and has stated this several times.

Although affiliates in North Carolina have been terminated from many programs already, I would expect more terminations are likely.  Indicators are that North Carolina will have a strict interpretation of the law, much like Rhode Island. As you may recall there is apparently no ability to rebut the presumption of nexus in Rhode Island.

As North Carolina progresses towards implementing new nexus rules, it becomes apparent that our industry needs to also make changes. We need to continue to work together to identify solutions to all the challenges we face. Internet sales tax is only one part, but our reaction to this challenge indicates our viability on a much larger scale.