Friday, March 11, 2011

Illinois Passes Affiliate Taxation Law, Despite Overstock.com Opposition

The state of Illinois has passed a law which taxes companies like Salt Lake City-based Overstock.com and fellow online retailer Amazon.com, despite threats by those retailers to drop affiliates in the state. Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed the so-called "Amazon tax" yesterday, which taxes Amazon and others who have online affiliates in Illinois. Illinois--like many other states--has been looking to tax online retailers to make up shortfalls in its budget. Overstock had threatened to pull its retailers in the state if the law passed. Amazon.com has already notified its Illinois affiliates that they are being dropped from the program. Many online retailers use affiliate sales to help direct customers to their e-commerce sites, paying a small percentage of sales to those affiliates. The Illinois law is not unlike a similar law passed in Colorado, which resulted in Amazon and Overstock booting their affiliates there last year.