In spite of a valiant effort from the affiliate marketing community, the Colorado house has passed HB1193. The industry banded together and did an excellent job of rallying to fight yet another state’s misguided attempt to boost sales tax coffers via a bill that will significantly impact the livelihood of affiliate marketers.

But its not over and there are other opportunities to fight this bill!
HB1193 now has to move on to the Senate. The PMA reports:

Colorado House Passes Bill that Threatens to Devastate Affiliates

The political momentum in Colorado coupled with the looming and fast paced deadlines for voting on House Bill 1193 is threatening to decimate the affiliate marketing community in the Rocky Mountain State.

Like many other states, Colorado is now fast tracking a misguided bill that would classify affiliates as sales representatives for out of state merchants. This would establish nexus for those merchants and force them to begin collecting sales tax from all consumers in that state. Rather than going through that complex tax collection process merchants will simply terminate their relationship with affiliates in Colorado. Online retailer Overstock already announced it will terminate all affiliate relationships in Colorado and other merchants WILL follow suit.

(If you aren’t yet familiar with the various state tax legislation issues that are threatening the affiliate marketing industry, please take a moment to learn more here: What is the Advertising Tax?)

Last week Colorado affiliates, the PMA, Affiliate Advocacy, AbestWeb members and numerous affiliate bloggers all worked together and tried their best to inform the industry and rally the troops. Many of the industry leaders at the PMA and Affiliate Advocacy are torn in several directions trying to head off legislation in several other states at the same time.

Melanie from Affiliate Advocacy tells CO affiliates what they can expect next and what they need to do to prepare. Colorado Legislation Moves To Senate

And the PMA is organizing more grassroots efforts to stop in it’s tracks. Get involved here: About Colorado: Preparing for the next steps

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