Posts Tagged "#advertisingtax"

ASE09 Session: Advertising Tax Impact (Trisha’s Take)

Posted on Aug 10, 2009 in Affiliate Marketing, Conferences & Networking |

As you noticed, Dominic already posted his notes on the session, but here’s mine!  Session Description: Discussion on the Advertising Tax by industry leaders that have played a key role in organizing industry advocates and educating legislators on the impact of state tax nexus legislation.  The panel consisted of:

I thought it was well done.  Unfortunately there weren’t nearly as many people there as should have been.  Hopefully they’ll read this and know that they need to get informed before their business is blindsided with these tax issues.

Bullet Point Review!

  • The use tax system really doesn’t work right now, hence why states are looking to tax online retailers.
  • All this involves Nexus.
  • If you make a commission on a sale, you’re affected.  Period.
  • There’s a lot of misinformation out there – we’re trying to inform reporters enough to make them care about what’s really happening.
  • There’s a different between an affiliate company and affiliates, which is somewhat difficult to properly explain to legislators.
  • This is putting thousands of individuals out of business.
  • We need to keep politics out of it – it’s not a Democrat or a Republican thing.
  • SSTP (streamline sales tax project) not going to save us.
  • It’s GOING to happen – don’t think you’re safe.
  • This year it’s been introduced in 9 states – stopped in 7 of 9 (not RI or NC)
  • Be sure to work with like minded people to get things done.
  • It helps to have an internal advocate who knows the system’s ins & outs (a lobbyist or lobbying organization).
  • The viral-ness worked well to defeat the bills.
  • The CA bill would have passed had we not shown up, so it makes a BIG difference to stand up and help and make your voice heard.
  • When talking to legislators, there are a few things to remember:
    • The term “affiliate” is very confusing, but they understand advertising and small business owner.
    • Don’t say you’re going to move out of state – if you do, you’re no longer their problem, so they don’t care.
    • Keep your analogies simple – don’t get too technical or use jargon they won’t understand (CPA, PPC, SEO, etc).
  • There are ways around it in New York
    • First you have to meet the minimum sales threshold, so if you don’t make that you’re not affected.
    • You can rebut the nexus.
  • They haven’t yet found a way to rebut the nexus in Rhode Island and it’s too early to tell for North Carolina.
  • Merchants can just charge tax to keep affiliates – but it is something they have to start working on NOW in the back end to avoid being blindsided.
  • Affiliates need to prepare your business for it and keep lines of communication open.
  • Solutions: retain a sales and use tax attorney and understand the law as best you can.
  • DO NOT: incorporate your business in another state, use a false address, follow advice of someone who’s unlicensed, follow advice of a lawyer for another party, or try to circumvent the law.  Working within the law is your best option.
  • Being shady brings a bad name to the industry – your rep and the industries rep is under scrutiny

There was no time for a Q&A session because of all the awesome information they jam packed into that session.  It was really great and I’m still just sad to see that more people weren’t there.

Please help by spreading the word about what’s being referred to as the Advertising Tax! And for your pleasure, here’s the presentation:

Advertising Tax Impact Accomplishments And The Future

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ASE09 Session: Advertising Tax Impact, Accomplishments and the Future

Posted on Aug 10, 2009 in Affiliate Marketing, Conferences & Networking, Guest Posts | 1 comment

Guest Post by Dominic Fawver.

Session Description: Discussion on the Advertising Tax by industry leaders that have played a key role in organizing industry advocates and educating legislators on the impact of state tax nexus legislation.  The panel included:

This session was very informative and gave a lot of information concerning the current problems affiliate marketers are having with some of the new tax laws, or rather the new interpretations, of the tax laws.  One of the most important facts given was that the definition of “Nexus” has been recently changed, or rather updated.  For a business to have Nexus, they must by physically present in the state.  The change in definition holds that affiliates living in a state count as Nexus in that state.  This is important because it requires all of the merchants to charge their customers the state sales tax.  The issue is not that the companies should charge this sales tax, but that it is often cheaper for them to drop their affiliates in whichever states are affected, instead of adding the ability to charge the sales tax on their site.

The chief purpose of this session was to bring people up to speed on the legislation that has been put into affect or has been defeated in several states such as New York, Hawaii, and California.  This is important because it will soon affect any state that charges sales tax, which is most of them.

From the standpoint of someone new to the industry this was a very important session to attend, as it helped to bring me up to speed, so to speak, with some of the major issues which are currently impacting Affiliate Marketing.

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URGENT! California AB178 is BACK!

Posted on Jun 22, 2009 in Affiliate Marketing, Rambles | 3 comments

As forewarned, the “affiliate nexus” language has been added to the state’s budget in an effort to generate more revenue for California.  So, we need support again!  LinkShare sent out a letter to all affiliates on behalf of the PMA, and Commission Junction sent out one of their own.  In part, the PMA email read:

You may remember the grass-roots campaign we waged in April, to defeat an anti-affiliate tax bill that would have a detrimental effect on affiliate programs. Even though we defeated that bill, it has been revived, in a desperate hope to help California’s budget crisis. The bill was originally defeated thanks to the affiliate community in California, who was responsible for convincing the sponsoring committee that this bill was a bad idea. Now it is time to repeat that stellar effort, because we have a few more people to convince.

So we need your assistance again!  Below is a list of important California officials that need to hear from you that this is a BAD idea!  Also below is the copy you can feel free to paste into the email you send to them!  Some folks are going back to Sacramento today to do what they can, and unfortunately I won’t be able to join them this time.  So I sent emails.  I checked these against the website and they all seem accurate even though several of mine bounced back, so I’m also including a link to their website’s contact form.  Note, however, that some won’t accept correspondence from an address outside their district, which I think is complete fail of the system, but that’s just me.

Here is the email copy you can paste into the email.  Remember to edit the parts I’ve italicized in red below.  Commission Junction’s template can be found here.

Subject: OPPOSITION to Sales/Use Tax Nexus Bill (AB 178 Skinner)

Dear Senator [Insert Last Name]

I am a small business owner with a website, and I am in strong opposition to Sales/Use Tax Nexus Bill (AB 178 Skinner), which would require retailers that receive referrals from advertising on websites, such as mine, to collect sales tax in California.

I am opposed to this bill because it would substantially harm my small business by reducing a large source of revenue that I depend on to survive. This revenue results from providing advertising on my website on behalf of out-of-state retailers. [Describe briefly how your business model is set-up and what you contribute to the local economy.]

If retailers believe that doing business with me will result in their having to collect sales tax on all California sales, they likely will sever ties with my business, putting the viability of my business at risk. Such was the case in New York State where Overstock dismantled its affiliates program and hundreds of other business followed Overstock’s example. This left thousands of small and medium-sized affiliate businesses with a 50% loss of income.

Unfortunately, this bill is futile. If enacted, retailers will drop me as a partner, California won’t collect sales tax as a result – and my business will be devastated in the process.

For these reasons, I respectfully oppose this legislation.

Sincerely,
[Your Name]

Please be sure to spread the word to your fellow affiliates potentially affected by this bill!

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ad:tech San Francisco: Performance Marketing – Getting the Most from Your Marketing Dollar in a Tough Economy

Posted on May 4, 2009 in Affiliate Marketing, Conferences & Networking |

Session Description: How can marketers get the most from their budgets in a difficult economic climate?  We’ll explore how to attain more from a smaller budget via performance marketing with practical, tactical solutions.  We’ll look at the pros and cons of allocating dollars to performance marketing and we’ll discuss what technological innovations are coming to the performance marketing space that will maximize budgets and minimize challenges.

This session took place Wednesday, April 22, 2009. The speakers:

  • Neil Strother, Analyst, Forrester Research (Moderator)
  • Peter Bordes, CEO, MediaTrust
  • Steve Schaffer, Founder and CEO, Vertive
  • Jarvis Mak, Senior VP, Global Research and Insights Director, Havas Digital
  • Kelly Powers, Senior Manager, Customer Acquisition, Zazzle

This session was definitely geared towards those marketing and advertising professionals that are not already in the performance marketing game.  It was very insightful to watch from that point of view in mind.

Bullet Point Review!

  • Neil asks “What is performance marketing?”
    • Paying only for results, whether those results are leads, referrals, a percentage of the sale.  Advertisers get to determine how much they pay.
  • You can leverage your affiliates to assist with your paid search efforts.
  • You need to have good landing pages.
  • What’s the real value of the actions being driven?
  • What you’re paying for is marketing.
  • Affiliates have more incentive to drive more qualified traffic and customers.
  • Affiliates drive higher conversions, average orders.
  • There’s three types of advertising, CPM, CPC, and CPA.
  • Merchants only want to pay one touch point for the sale.
  • There’s a mentality that affiliates are frowned upon; CEOs will be wary of the methods but CFOs will be excited about the value and efficiency of the channel.
  • AM is very data driven – more money is shifted towards traceable marketing.
  • Executives need to understand affiliate marketing; the whole industry is misunderstood.
  • Industry is starting to get the data out and break through the black box and lack of transparency.
  • Peter briefly explained what’s going on with the #advertisingtax to the crowd.
  • A couple of states have been able to stop the #advertisingtax but it’s moving fast.
  • Fraud has grown exponentially, especially in lead gen.
  • Paying for leads welcomes fraud in som,e industries, ask yourself if you can pay for a different action.
  • A major player will soon announce a ranking system (Peter couldn’t divulge who).

Points brought up during the Q&A

  • Is there a metric to show brand safety?  No.  It’d be nice to take the focus off the brand.
  • Yes you need brand awareness, but that’s not going to drive a sale.  The best offer is.
  • It’s not infinitely scalable; you can always throw more money at search, etc. but throwing more money at affiliate marketing doesn’t work because the core is the relationships.
  • Amazing how much more some merchants pay on other marketing methods and channels over affiliate marketing.
  • Advertisers need to do a better job at attribution to track the sales to the correct channels.
  • Feel free to launch new products with affiliate marketing; it has worked in the past when done right.
  • What are some practical takeaways?
    • Continue to optimized
    • Work on attribution
    • Look at marketing channels as a holistic portfolio.
    • Focus on better, fewer networks and don’t spread your program too think.

The Q&A portion wasn’t so much a traditional Q&A as it was a case study like discussion.  The panel really wanted to help with real examples, and only one gentleman in consumer finance was willing to ask for assistance.

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Recap of Lobby Day Against CA AB 178

Posted on Apr 1, 2009 in Career, Rambles | 2 comments

Recap of Lobby Day Against CA AB 178

California Capitol BuildingYesterday I had the privilege of accompanying 9 of my fellow affiliate marketers to the California State Capitol building in Sacramento to help lobby legislators against the passage of California Assembly Bill 178.

I have to say on a personal level, this was my first trip to the Capitol, and the most involved I’ve ever gotten with politics in general.  It was a pleasant experience overall.  And yes, I got a little “star struck” for lack of a better term walking by Gov. Schwarzenegger’s office.  I had to fight the urge to knock on the door and demand court!

Back to business.  10 of us were able to make it up, some coming from Southern California.  We had appointments set for almost all day, so we split into two groups so we wouldn’t run the risk of running late or overcrowding offices.  Our group had a few lack luster meetings with staff that really didn’t understand what we were talking about or weren’t really familiar enough with the bill to care yet.  But we also had some good meetings with other staff members who were incredibly receptive to our message and offered us a lot of advice regarding how to go about the lobbying that we’re doing.  Some even went so far as to call other offices we didn’t already have appointments with and help to make us appointments.

It was equal parts optimistic and pessimistic.  While it looks like it’s going to be incredibly difficult to outright kill the bill because of the eagerness of the state to collect any income possible.  Focusing on the message that it’s best to keep the bill as broad as possible in the definition keeps it as fair as possible.  In a perfect situation the Streamlined Sales Tax Project to require the collection of sales tax across every state would make the playing field as fair as possible, but that’s already been in the works for almost a decade and doesn’t look promising to be enacted any time soon.  So in the meantime, we do what we can.

You can still do what you can.  Now that we’ve taken meetings at the capitol, feel free next week to take meetings in your district in California.  The members will be on vacation and potentially available at their district offices.  Staff will not be on vacation and will still be in Sacramento working, so if you weren’t able to join us under such short notice, feel free to schedule your own appointments and talk to the Assembly Members on the committee for Revenue and Taxation.  The meetings were generally short, 15-20 minutes of a staff members’ time.  We were able to leave behind the letter that Linkshare wrote in opposition along with the opposition letter from the Performance Marketing Alliance, co-signed by over 300 affiliates.

If you’d like copies of these documents for your own leave behinds materials and have the intention of taking a meeting either in the district offices or in Sacramento, please leave a comment and I’ll see  how we can get those materials to you.  Here’s information on the committee members to reach out to.  If you live in their district, all the better (they prefer to hear from constituents whenever possible).

  • The Committee for Revenue and Taxation: (916) 319-2098
  • Charles M. Calderon (Chair) – Dem. 58th District
    • Sacramento Office: State Capitol, P.O. Box 942849, Sacramento, CA 94249-0058, Phone (916) 319-2058
    • District Office: 13181 N. Crossroads Pkwy, Suite 160, City of Industry, CA 91746, Phone (562) 692-5858
  • Chuck DeVore (Vice Chair) – Rep. 70th District
    • Sacramento Office: State Capitol Room #4102, Sacramento, CA 95814, Phone (916) 319-2070
    • District Office: 3 Park Plaza, Suite 275, Irvine, CA 92614, Phone (949) 863-7070
  • Jim Beall, Jr. – Dem. 24th District
    • Sacramento Office: State Capitol, P.O. Box 942849, Sacramento, CA 94249-0024, Phone (916) 319-2024
    • District Office: 100 Paseo De San Antonio, Suite 300, San Jose, CA 95113, Phone (408) 282-8920
  • Joe Coto – Dem. 23rd District
    • Sacramento Office: State Capitol, P.O. Box 942849, Sacramento, CA 94249-0023, Phone (916) 319-2023
    • District Office: 100 Paseo De San Antonio, Suite 319, San Jose, CA 95113, Phone (408) 277-1220
  • Diane L. Harkey – Rep. 73rd District
    • Sacramento Office: State Capitol Room #4177, Sacramento, CA 95814, Phone (916) 319-2073
    • District Office #1: 29122 Rancho Viejo Rd., Suite 111, San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675, Phone (949) 347-7301
    • District Office #2: 300 N. Coast Hwy, Oceanside, CA 92054, Phone (760) 757-8084
  • Fiona Ma – Dem. 12th District
    • Sacramento Office: State Capitol, P.O. Box 942849, Sacramento, CA 94249-0012, Phone (916) 319-2012
    • District Office: 455 Golden Gate Ave., Suite 14600, San Francisco, CA  94102, Phone (415) 557-2312
  • Jim Nielsen – Rep. 2nd District
    • Sacramento Office: State Capitol Room #6031, Sacramento, CA 95814, Phone (916) 319-2002
    • District Office #1: 280 Hemsted Dr., Suite 110, Redding, CA 96002, Phone (530) 223-6300
    • District Office #2: 1527 Starr Dr., Suite U, Yuba City, CA 95993, Phone (530) 751-8351
  • Anthony J. Portantino – Dem. 44th District
    • Sacramento Office: State Capitol, P.O. Box 942849, Sacramento, CA 94249-0044, Phone (916) 319-2044
    • District Office: 215 N. Marengo Ave, Suite 115, Pasadena, CA 91101, Phone (626) 577-9944
  • Lori Saldaña – Dem. 76th District
    • Sacramento Office: State Capitol, P.O. Box 942849, Sacramento, CA 94249-0076, Phone (916) 319 – 2076
    • District Office: 1557 Columbia St., San Diego, CA 92101, Phone (619) 645-3090
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