Amazon Associates Terminated In Vermont Over Taxes

Amazon Associates in Vermont got the bad news regarding their Amazon Associates affiliate accounts: they’re closed in response to Vermont tax law, the Burlington Free Press reported this past week. Vermont is the latest state to cause Amazon Associates accounts to get closed within that state over sales tax collection.

The Free Press reported the following, and that an email to Amazon associates in the state called the move “a direct result of Vermont’s state tax collection legislation.”

“Vermonters participating in the Amazon Associates program were notified by email Tuesday of their immediate termination. Vermont is one of six states whose residents are ineligible for the program, according to an Amazon Web page.”

Vermont passed legislation in 2011 to apply sales taxes to online sales, such as those generated through the Amazon Associates program via Amazon.com. Having the sales generated by Amazon Associates subject to sales taxes diminishes the competitive advantage of those online sales, the company claims, forcing them to terminate Amazon Associates accounts in states that apply sales taxes to those Amazon Associates-generated sales.

Tax-News.comreported the following on Friday.

“Citing the state’s ‘click-through’ advertising law, Amazon emailed Vermont participants in its Amazon Associates program that their accounts would be closed. Passed in 2011 to put pressure on Congress to pass federal legislation that would require online retailers to collect sales taxes, the Vermont law won’t take effect until the state attorney general’s office determines that one-third of states with sales tax have adopted similar laws.”

CFO reported that the Amazon Associates agreement now states that “if at any time following your enrollment in the program, you become a resident of Arkansas, Colorado, Maine, Missouri, Rhode Island or Vermont, you will become ineligible to participate in the (Amazon Associates) program, and this operating agreement will automatically terminate, on the date you establish residency in that state.”

The issues of taxing the sales generated by Amazon Associates was raised by tax law in New York, the Inquisitr reported in the past. Amazon.com had filed a lawsuit against the state of New York over being forced to collect sales taxes for online purchases, including those made via web sites of Amazon Associates.

Currently, the above six states require such tax collection and Amazon.com has closed the Amazon Associates program to residents of those states. That set of states where residents can not participate in the Amazon Associates will continue to grow as more states mandate sales tax collection for purchases from Amazon Associates.

[Image from the Burlington Free Press of the Amazon Associates notice terminating their accounts of Vermont residents.]