Adverse Impact of Pennsylvania Affiliate Nexus Tax

Once again our illustrious government, in efforts to "screw the little guy" is going to end up inadvertently screwing themselves.  For those who are not aware, many Internet marketers are actively engaged in what is known as affiliate marketing.  This strategy, as opposed to selling products directly, the marketer promotes products from other companies and when people make purchases, the affiliate marketer receives a commission from the advertise whose products the marketer is promoting.  Therefore, if someone buys a product promoted by a marketer in Pennsylvania and the purchaser does not live in Pennsylvania, they are not charged Pennsylvania state sales tax.  Consequently, our Pennsylvania state government has come up with the bright idea that if they impose PA state sales tax on those sales going through affiliate marketers in Pennsylvania they will increase the revenue to our state.

Government dudes and dudettes, ARE YOU NOT THINKING????  This will impact Pennsylvania state revenues adversely in TWO ways.  Just like everyone else, most affiliate marketers report their earnings on their income tax returns.  So, PA will lose the income tax revenue from those earnings.  Those companies that have affiliates in Pennsylvania will terminate their affiliate agreements with them.  (I know because one of my advertisers already terminated my agreement in anticipation of the Nexus Tax Law).  Pennsylvania will also lose revenue from those people within the state who would have purchased products from PA based Internet retailers who have affiliates.  So, not only will they lose income tax revenue, they will also lose sales tax revenue.

If Pennsylvania needs to increase tax revenues, they should seek ways that won't economically injure the state itself and the thousands of affiliate marketers that reside in Pennsylvania.  Congressmen need to look at how much tax revenue they are receiving every year from affiliate marketers residing in Pennsylvania, because PA can color that revenue "Gone With the Wind."

If PA wants to really raise tax revenues, what they need to do is tax the illegal activities employed by the Catholic Churches in PA to raise money.  One only needs to closely examine the Bible to determine that gambling is a sin, and perhaps what the government needs to do is impose a "sin tax" on the Catholic Church for their Bingo games.  They should also require the Catholic Church to set up a trust for the victims of pedophile Priests.  If priests were allowed to marry, this would not be such a prevalent problem among those who many a young boys have placed their trust.

What about all the beer that is sold at Catholic events??  Does PA receive any tax revenue from those beer sales??  I think not.  Tax the boozers, guys!!!  The Catholic Church has been getting away with too much for too long and its time they pay the piper.  I really doubt that God would approve of Catholic Churches selling beer (or other alcoholic beverages in the name of supporting the church.  That is even more ridiculous than their ban on contraception.  True, the Bible does say "be fruitful and multiply," but it doesn't say have so many kids that you can't support yourself, become a crack addict, and get supported by the Welfare system, without even having a drug test.

So, I say to the Pennsylvania government....................WAKE UP!!!!!  Your are ignoring genuine problems and opportunities to generate revenue, at the expense of people who NEED to earn a living, or just a little extra cash.  A lot of us need a little extra cash from affiliate marketing just to be able to make ends meet.  Another great idea to increase PA revenue, is all Congressman and Senators should work for free, pay for their own healthcare, and rely on Social Security and PERSONAL retirement plans in the golden years.

Pennsylvania, it seems, thinks they can afford to give away millions of dollars every year to Welfare mothers addicted to crack, and illegal immigrants who should not only NOT get any benefits from Welfare, they should be immediately deported to wherever they came from.  We Pennsylvanians need to stand up and have our voices heard, we need to say "We're mad as hell, and we're not going to take it anymore!!!"

I encourage you all, BLOG, BLOG, BLOG, write letters to your Congressman and Senators, if they don't listen vote them out.  Let's all make a stand and put an end to this anal retentive behaviour on the part of our state government.  Remember the saying "The Pen is Mightier Than the Sward."  Write, gather support, get your supporters to write.  Together we can make change happen.  The kind of change that is good for everybody, not the kind of change advocated by Obama.  That is change that we DON'T need.

Who Stands to Lose

First and foremost, implementing the Pennsylvania Affiliate Nexus Tax Law will hurt consumers.  Why?  Because affiliate marketers are an integral part of the consumer purchasing process.  Many affiliates do research on the products that they promote.  Some of them write in-depth reviews on products that they have tried and they feel offer value to the consumer.  Read my cookware review for example.  They are familiar with them, they are familiar with competing products, and they can give consumers good advice to make an informed decision before they make the purchase.  Many consumers will make those purchases through links on the reviewer's website or blog.  This has two benefits, because it saves the consumer time, as many reviewers have already done the competitive shopping part as part of the review.  Also, the reviewer or blogger can make a small bit of money from each referral from the links on their site.  If this law is implemented, then advertisers will end their relationships with Pennsylvania affiliate marketers, and their won't be all of those informative product reviews that consumers have come to rely on.

The taxing authorities will lose, because some affiliate marketers are making enough money that it will be worth it to them to move to another state so they continue their businesses.  They will lose tax revenue from those that stay, because they will have a loss in income, and therefore be paying less in PA state income tax.

Product Manufacturers, distributors, and wholesalers will lose, because they will lose sales. Thousands of big retailers rely on affiliate marketers to drive traffic to their products.  WalMart, K-Mart, Target, Home Depot, fye, Circuit City, and Barnes & Noble, just to name a few that are well known.  Without affiliates, they all stand to lose millions of dollars.  Even online stores, such as Amazon and E-Bay rely on affiliates to drive traffic to their websites.