July 07, 2009
By the ZippyCart Shopping Carts Content Team
In an effort to save online business owners from losing out on significant advertising revenue, Gov. Linda Lingle of Hawaii vetoed a bill last week that would have forced Internet retailers to collect the 4 percent general excise tax if they advertise in the state. This has been a big controversy over the last month as Amazon, Overstock, and Blue Nile have been cutting out affiliate relationships in various states because they are choosing to change their laws. If the bill manages to make it through, it will force many residents of Hawaii to decide if they will stay and continue operating their business under the new rules or if they will move to a more retailer friendly state.
It is not that taxes have not been required on purchases before. In fact, they have whether they’re made inside Hawaii or not. Courts however have ruled that only online businesses with physical operations in a state are required to collect the taxes, and residents seldom end up reporting them. Online shopping has been going strong for over 10 years and has been a success because customers love to shop online. New business owners are getting started every day because they can get set up and run an ecommerce store very quickly for a minimal amount of start up money. States who do not support these retailers run a huge risk to future revenues for their economy. Online business owners will continue to do what is best for them and some states will be more receptive because they will see the long term benefit of having the money flow through their economy.
Nick was born and raised in California, but has been working the dot com scene in Seattle for many years. He co-founded ZippyCart back in 2009, and now works here full-time. Nick wears many hats at ZippyCart, including producing content for our Ecommerce News blog. Nick loves photography and the outdoors, so when not working on ZippyCart you can find him out and about in Seattle.
