North Carolina’s version of the “Amazon Tax”

North Carolina has joined the Amazon Tax club with their Senate Bill 487 and House bill 558. They appear to be modifying existing mail order laws to include “remote” sales, which is what they’re calling affiliate sales.

The following is from the Senate bill, though the House Bill reads the same. Underline is new text replacing the strikeout text.

“(b)      Mail Order Remote Sales. – A
retailer who makes a mail order remote sale is engaged in
business in this State and is subject to the tax levied under this Article if
at least one of the following conditions is met:

(1)        The retailer is a corporation engaged in business
under the laws of this State or a person domiciled in, a resident of, or a
citizen of, this State.

(2)        The retailer maintains retail establishments or
offices in this State, whether the mail order remote sales thus
subject to taxation by this State result from or are related in any other way
to the activities of such establishments or offices.

(3)        The retailer has representatives in this State
who solicit business or transact business on behalf of the retailer, solicits
or transacts business in this State by employees, independent contractors,
agents, or other representatives whether the mail order remote sales
thus subject to taxation by this State result from or are related in any
other way to such the solicitation or transaction of business.
A retailer is presumed to be soliciting or transacting business by an
independent contractor, agent, or other representative if the retailer enters into an agreement with a resident of this State under which the resident, for a commission or other consideration, directly or indirectly refers potential
customers, whether by a link on an Internet Web site or otherwise, to the
retailer, if the cumulative gross receipts from sales by the retailer to
purchasers in this State who are referred to the retailer by all residents with
this type of agreement with the retailer is in excess of ten thousand dollars ($10,000)
during the preceding four quarterly periods. This presumption may be rebutted
by proof that the resident with whom the retailer has an agreement did not
engage in any solicitation in the State on behalf of the seller that would
satisfy the nexus requirement of the United States Constitution during the four
quarterly periods in question.

By my count, the states now with the Amazon tax in some part of the legislative process are: New York, California, Hawaii, Connecticut, Minnesota, and North Carolina.

Don’t wait for your state to join the list. Contact your state representatives NOW so they at least have a clue that this bill may be hurting small business in their state.

Tagged as: #AdvertisingTax