Thanks Connecticut – Amazon terminates associate contracts due to tax law interpretation

Connecticut is open for business! The Democrats have had their greedy hands out since they took control of both the state legislature and the governor’s office. Today, thousands of Amazon associates living in the Constitution State received notice Amazon was terminating the agreement they had with them effective immediately.

The program allowed entrepreneurs, bloggers and anyone with a website to make a small commission on the sale of items promoted through their online presence. Of course, just promoting the item did not generate a commission, rather the visitor needed to click the link and buy the product to earn what could be a few cents or a few dollars.

Since Connecticut residents live in Connecticut, Gov. Dannel Malloy (D) and the Democrat legislature figured Amazon had a physical presence in the state and would demand Amazon collect sales tax on all purchases made by Connecticut residents through the Amazon portal.

For its part, Amazon thinks the interpretation of the law is unconstitutional, but there is no word if the company will fight it in court. They made the decision to cut off the associates from earning any commission at all. Overstock.com also ended their affiliate program with Connecticut residents. Businesses, software companies, Web hosts, and others with affiliate programs and marketing agreements will certainly do the same.

Really Connecticut Democrats … what the hell does this do to improve the situation? Will you collect one dime in extra tax revenue from this move? Nope … all you’re doing is taking a few dollars out of the hands of Connecticut residents who – by law – were already paying you income tax on the money that was earned. Now, you don’t get a nickel in income tax and the affiliates are totally cut off.

Connecticut is open for business!

In 2004, my wife and I made the decision to invest in Connecticut by building a home here and joining the Hartford County corporate rat-race. At the time, we had other opportunities out of state and even one out of the country. I certainly can’t say the state has been unfriendly to us, but the moves made by the state legislature and this governor since February – along with the overall economic climate in the United States – has resulted in a bunch of browser bookmarks referencing living and working in other states, and a stack of brochures here in my home office from housing developments elsewhere.

You can guess what happened to the value of our home since 2004. Since then, I’ve also had one of my best friends come back to Connecticut, buy a home and start his own business. He ended up leaving the state with his growing family for greener pastures and found them.

A co-worker also moved south after living in Connecticut his entire life. Unhappy with the economics of living in Connecticut, he was able to keep his current job and move to and work from home in his new state – let’s just say it’s a lot farther south – thanks to broadband Internet access. His growing family is happy.

Do I have to list more examples? I’ve got em…

Don’t you dare try to pass along the “shared sacrifice” crap. The politicians, state budget, state employees and contractors certainly are not “sacrificing” much of anything. Have you noticed there is nobody from the union – or any state employees – complaining about the governor’s deal with unions to “give up” $1.4 billion in concessions?

Have you taken a look at the state budget for the past few years? The 2009 budget deal was for two years and the total was $37.6 billion. Now Malloy and state Democrats plan on spending $40.1 billion. That’s a 7 percent increase in the budget.

Shared sacrifice my ….

State Democrats will do what they have always done. Make government bigger and bigger when it comes to the amount of money they spend. Trust me … results don’t matter. It’s all about intentions. Their intention is simply to steal more and more money from residents to the point where so many are dependent on the government trough in some way, shape or form that they are afraid to detach themselves from the government teat.

Looking into my crystal ball I see Democrats claiming a victory after pointing out a – totally fake – surplus. They will promptly spend every single dime of that surplus and if they stay in power, you’ll never see taxes in this state lowered. Never.

The cycle continues.

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Steve McGough

Steve's a part-time conservative blogger. Steve grew up in Connecticut and has lived in Washington, D.C. and the Bahamas. He resides in Connecticut, where he’s comfortable six months of the year.

17 Comments

  1. GdavidH on June 10, 2011 at 9:25 am

    “Unexpectedly” the unintended result.



  2. Plainvillian on June 10, 2011 at 9:33 am

    In the 25 years I’ve been her, I’ve seen Connecticut spiral into a miasma of one party over-regulated, over-taxed and corrupt stagnation.? Count me among those planning to leave soon.



  3. KrisTr on June 10, 2011 at 9:40 am

    I just found a job in MA. I may have to register my websites there too. Thanks CT. More and more of us are learning that when they said “tax millionares” they meant everybody but themselves. Maybe that’s a good thing.



  4. soapboxblogger on June 10, 2011 at 10:11 am

    My contract with Amazon was cancelled and to re-instate it I have to move out of CT. Here is the link to the email:
    http://soapboxblogger.com/686/amazon-says-budget-signed-by-governor-malloy-is-unconstitutional-and-counterproductive/

    “Liberalism is the Disease and ‘We, The People’ Are the Cure” – SoapboxBlogger.com



  5. WagTheDog on June 10, 2011 at 10:27 am

    Those evil, greedy corporations.? How dare they make money and leave the state out of the loop.? I mean, how are we supposed to pay the DOT workers to stand around and glare at passing motorists if we don’t raise more revenue?



  6. Don Lombardo on June 10, 2011 at 11:18 am

    Open for WHAT??????????”?



  7. GaryInSoGlast on June 10, 2011 at 12:17 pm

    It is really sad. ?I love this state. ?I’ve never really wanted to live anywhere else. ?Now, it becomes a real possibility that I will have to move my family to avoid having our futures put at risk by the left over spending, over taxing, and down right wasting our money. ?They don’t care about outcome or redundancy. ?They only care about the power they can wield with our tax money. ?The unions are their soldiers and we are supposed to just sit back and let them steal and waste. ?I really pray things turn around before I’m forced to move. ?Please, Connecticut, stop this before it’s too late. ?Once we leave, we won’t be back. ?There won’t be anyone left to pay for this craziness.



  8. Murphy on June 10, 2011 at 12:22 pm

    Connecticut is Open for “Giving taxpayers the” Business.
    Is what they meant to say.



  9. sammy22 on June 10, 2011 at 2:22 pm

    Well, Jim has a radio show in CT and Steve M, according to the bio above, “resides in Connecticut where he?s very comfortable six months of the year.” Is the rest of the population simply disgruntled?



  10. Dimsdale on June 10, 2011 at 2:53 pm

    And becoming more disgruntled every day.?? “Open for monkey business” more likely.? GAAP??? Don’t make me laugh, Malloy!? I never imagined a day when CT would make MA look good!
    ?
    I bet Jim would be in Florida or Texas if his show weren’t based here.? Now if he gets syndicated like Rush…?? 😉



  11. TomL on June 10, 2011 at 3:29 pm

    The OFA can’t figure the state?budget

    http://www.rep-am.com/news/connecticut/563464.txt

    What they gonna do if the money’s ?not there?



  12. garand36 on June 10, 2011 at 8:42 pm

    I JUST BOUGHT MY HOUSE IN AZ AFTER LIVING HERE ALL 62 YEARS OF MY LIFE
    YEA JAN BREWER BOO MOLLOY



  13. TomL on June 11, 2011 at 9:48 am

    We got a bunch of buildings in Stamford that are going dark, maybe they’ll move here, Oh I forgot we’re worse

    http://www.foxbusiness.com/industries/2011/06/09/cme-threatens-to-skip-town-over-illinois-tax-hike/?intcmp=obnetwork



  14. johnboy111 on June 11, 2011 at 1:24 pm

    CT is open?for ?trans-gendered pot smokers????who could ask for more?????



  15. Lynn on June 12, 2011 at 8:36 am

    TomL, thanks for that first link. It is unbelievable and sad.



  16. pauldow on June 13, 2011 at 11:41 am

    I run a web site for a small non-profit educational organization, and had put an Amazon link on it. We didn’t get much from it, but it was easy to do, and it was at least some income. Now it is nothing. Time after time the Democrats demonstrate how they “care about the little people.”



  17. Natural Handyman on June 13, 2011 at 11:53 am

    I have been working exclusively online on my home repair website?since 2005, and 100% of my income comes from affliliate programs such as Google Adsense and Amazon, among others, some of which are so tiny that the bookkeeping to satisfy CT’s law will drive them out.?

    Needless to say, I am dismayed that our legislators have acted “stupidly” yet again.? So far, I have only lost Amazon income, but I fear if the other affiliates follow suit I will have no choice but to reincorporate outside of CT to salvage my business.



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