In an attempt to raise tax revenues from larger online merchants and internet sales, California is threatening to put a lot of small businesses out of business. This recently happened in New York. The country needs to either decide to tax all internet sales, or none of them, but this piecemeal approach has caused large e-commerce companies to shut down local stores (read cut jobs) in order to avoid having a local presense in a given state, and now they are looking to cut marketing partners who happen to reside in New York or California to continue to avoid paying taxes on sales in that state. The loop holes are harming workers and small businesses.
Please read the following letter from Rebecca Madigan, the founder of the Performance Marketing Alliance:
California Bill 178 threatens to change the performance marketing playing field. If you are a publisher or agency whose business is in California, your livelihood is at risk.
This bill, copying a similar one in New York, unfairly categorizing publishers as sales presence for out-of-state advertisers. This means taxes will be levied on out-of-state advertisers, potentially causing them to shut down their publisher relationships in the state (it happened in New York). Learn more at www.performancemarketingalliance.com.
With your help, we have a great chance to kill this bill: the PMA is working with the California Chamber of Commerce and the California Taxpayers Association lobbying groups to fight this bill. These groups have successfully killed similar bills in the past, but the difference now is the precedent set by New York state. They believe the only way this bill can be killed is to have a coordinated grass-roots effort that demonstrates the devastating effect this bill will have on performance marketers in California.
With the support of CalChamber and CalTax, PMA is launching a coordinated grass-roots campaign that targets congressional representatives. We are developing an attack plan that includes sample letters, fact sheets, congressional contacts by zip code, and a “Visit Sacramento” day, to put faces in front of decision makers.
First step: The PMA is extremely fortunate to have the support and experience of Beth Kirsch, a well known industry leader who was formerly a federal lobbyist. She is leading our effort, but we need your help. We are looking for California performance marketers to get involved. The most seriously impacted are California publishers and OPMs.
We don’t have much time – we have until March 31st to make an impact.
As we learned from our colleagues in New York, the passage of this bill could have devastating effects on California performance marketers. If this passes in California, it virtually assures a firestorm of adoption by other states, which could devastate our entire industry. If we beat this bill, it will severely limit the adoption in other states.
Reply if you can help with the fight. At the very least, please forward this email to your Californian friends.
Rebecca Madigan
Founder
Performance Marketing Alliance, Inc.
805.469.1496
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