by SHAWN COLLINS
With the stroke of his pen, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn sent a strong message to small businesses that they are not welcome in his state.
The hostile signal from Governor Quinn came by signing HB 3659 into law, which forces out-of-state retailers to collect Illinois state sales tax for Internet sales, based on the view that affiliate marketers constitute a tax nexus for the retailers.
Noted “Mom & Pop” advocate Walmart applauded Pat Quinn’s move to send scores of IL entrepreneurs to the unemployment line.
How, you ask, would this legislation, which carried the misnomer of the “Mainstreet Fairness Bill”, put people out of business? Well, the target of this law is Amazon and other online retailers who do not have a physical presence in Illinois.
Here is how similar legislation has played out in other states… Amazon removes the affiliates of that state from their affiliate program, so they still do not assume a tax nexus, which means no additional tax revenue collected.
But wait, there’s more! Now there are scores of affiliate marketers who have been fired from Amazon and countless other online retailers. That’s a big chunk of income and income tax that has vaporized.
And that income that no longer exists can no longer be spent in Mainstreet Illinois.
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