So I have to write a blog post, and I decided to make it easy (since it’s Friday) and give an update on the North Carolina affiliate tax woes.
To catch everyone up, North Carolina is proposing a Nexus Tax, similar to the one passed in New York last year. This law states that online retailers must collect and report sales tax on any sales made to residents and such in the state of North Carolina, but only IF these retailers have affiliate marketers located in North Carolina. The affiliate marketers are considered a physical extension of the retailer, giving the retailer a physical presence in the state, which forces them to collect sales tax.
From what I’m gathering, the tax portion of the budget has been the biggest problem with the budget being passed. Governor Perdue has insisted she will veto the tax section as a whole if it includes certain items. She does not have the ability to veto specific lines in the tax section, just the whole thing.
So here presents a problem. Several outlets have spoken with Governor Perdue, and it’s become very evident that she doesn’t understand what the Nexus Tax even means. With that being said, it’d be no shock if she just pushed that tax law through.
The proponents of this tax law are equally disillusioned. Their battle cry now is equality for brick and mortar businesses. They believe the sales tax will create a level playing field, make things fair, take away the advantage of selling online. What they refuse to see is that people don’t shop online because of the lack of sales tax. In fact, out of everyone I know, I can’t name a single person who would even factor sales tax into the equation of whether to buy online or to buy at a store. The sole reason people go online is to get better deals and the sheer convenience of not having to leave the house! I can be sitting at home, order a book from California, and never have to put on pants or leave the house!
For affiliates, this has been a nightmare. July 1st was when the budget was supposed to be passed. June 28th, Amazon removed all NC affiliates. The budget was pushed back to July 15th. But that didn’t stop the publishers. They took initiative and systematically removed their NC affiliates. Now it’s July 25th, and the budget still isn’t passed. The tax section, which includes the Nexus tax, isn’t agreed upon. In fact, it’s been leaked that they’re going to start from scratch and redo the tax section. Whether this new version will include the Nexus tax or now remains to be seen. So we’ll see what happens.
In the meantime, 7even Leaf Clover isn’t sitting idly back awaiting our fate. We’ve already formed PA businesses to operate under. We’ve visited PA to look at houses and apartments, and we’re making plans on relocating if this passes. It sucks to think about, our fate is in the hands of ignorant lawmakers who refuse to listen to the industry, simply keep their blinders on and stick to their old ways, still believing they’re smarter and better than the rest of us.
Yup, I’m angry. And we’re still fighting. If this is about equality, if this is about being fair, then why are affiliates the only people being affected? Why are they losing their jobs, their businesses, being forced to move out of the state? How is this even close to being fair?
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Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, Google, Microsoft, Nexus Tax, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engines by Tim Caspersen
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In a not too shocking but definitely unexpected move, Google announced that they will be entering the OS race based on their already popular browser, Chrome.
Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we’re already talking to partners about the project, and we’ll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve.
Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We’re designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.
You can read the rest of the article at The Official Google Blog and download the Google Chrome Browser on their site.
But what does this mean for everyone who wants to use Chrome? Well, think about this Google already suggests that you sign into their web page to do search, look at maps and so on. This means they are collecting RIDICULOUS amounts of data about all of the people that are using their service. They can track you pretty closely, but now with Chrome OS it is possible they will be able to track what you do on a daily basis, what sites you visit without using Google Search, what programs you run on your desktop, how many pictures you have, how much music you have and so on and so forth. Scary right? Perhaps SkyNet isn’t that far off. Essentially Google is going to be controlling everything, people look to them for everything online, they have become a behemoth. Now I have nothing against Google I love them, but that doesn’t change the fact that they need to be kept in check and at least out of some portion of our lives. Lets hope they don’t put a little Analytics code into this OS of theirs. This is all really bad for privacy on all fronts.
Now the OS market only has so much room but a large company like Google should have no trouble getting into it, but can it stay there? Google has always been known for its streamlined, no bones, minimalist look and feel. So it may have a hand up against Microsoft and its bulky Windows. But Microsoft has had this market cornered for a long time, they have been dominant and continue to crush the competition. Only recently has Apple been able to achieve 10% market share of the OS market but I suspect that is due to things like the iPod, iPhone etc… introducing people to Apple and eventually leading them to a Mac. With that said Google has been a major thorn in Microsoft’s side ESPECIALLY online, they have pretty much shut them down in all aspects on the web, so if Chrome OS is a web based OS maybe Google has a chance. Little is known about Chrome OS so all if this is just speculation, I guess we will just have to wait and see what is going to happen and where this is going to go.
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Filed under: Google, Microsoft, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engines by Dean Karasinski
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