Georgia Hwy 120 Politics

Representative Matt Ramsey, (R-Peachtree City), is drawing up legislation that will hurt more small businesses in Georgia than he is intending to help. According to an article in the AJC, Ramsey is going to sponsor the Georgia affiliate nexus tax law. This will allow the state to collect tax from out of state online merchants that use affiliate marketing.

This is what I do for a living. This is my fight.

Rep. Ramsey says he is trying to help brick and mortar shops in Fayette County that complain online sales are hurting their business because customers are “shopping” their stores and buying online. Welcome to the new economy! If you don’t adapt, you fail. Unless the government bails you out. It’s just hard for me to understand why Republicans like Rep. Ramsey and Gov. Nathan Deal would be duped by lobbyists and state revenue employees that this idea would work. It has failed miserably in every other state and I’ve watched my friends struggle as a result.

The main issue is that companies like Home Depot are crying foul because Amazon does not have a physical location in Georgia and does not have to pay sales tax for online transactions. They have come up with an unconstitutional scheme that says I (an affiliate) am a nexus between Amazon and the state of Georgia. So any sales that happen through my affiliates links are taxable by the state. I am not a nexus. I’m a small business owner that makes some extra spending cash promoting products on my website. I use that spending cash at local businesses in the metro Atlanta area. Read my story on the Marketing Gorilla Blog to get a better understanding of how this will affect me and my family.

Online merchants do not want to create ecommerce solutions that fit the needs of 50 different states. The best we can hope for is a federal tax on Internet sales, but even then it seems unfair to many online entrepreneurs.

There are 6,000 affiliates in Georgia. If/when this law passes, online merchants like Amazon will immediate terminate their relationship with affiliates to avoid the alleged nexus. Therefore, any net gain Rep. Ramsey or the governor expect in uncollected taxes will disappear. But, because the large merchants will stop working with affiliates, state income taxes will decrease and affiliates will suffer. I’m encouraging all affiliates to share their story so that the real casualties of this idea will be exposed.

Contact Rep. Ramsey, your House Rep and your State Senator and let them know this plan will not level the playing field, only federal legislation will come closer to addressing the issue.

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