So, here's the situation:
I've been an affiliate marketer for a number of years before creating a new startup. One of the reasons I did this was to lessen the risk of the stupid Affiliate Tax laws from harming my business.
Anyway, after all this effort, the California State Senate came along and introduced SB234 (read the text here: http://leginfo.ca.gov/pub/11-12/bill/sen/sb_0201-0250/sb_234_bill_20110209_introduced.html )
Here's a quick summary of this bill:
- The goal of this bill is to establish through as many means possible that an out-of-state retailer has \"nexus\" - a physical presence which requires them to collect California sales tax.
- Nexus is defined in this bill as \"Any retailer having any representative, agent, salesperson, canvasser, independent contractor, or solicitor operating in this state under the authority of the retailer or its subsidiary for the purpose of selling, delivering, installing, assembling, or the taking of orders for any tangible personal property\"
- The result of this bill is that any out-of-state retailer will not have to collect sales tax if they sever business relationships with a large swath of contractors, service providers, ad networks and affiliates that have a presence in California.
What does this mean for you?
- If you are a company that in any way makes a commission or markets on behalf of another company as your monetization, you are in danger.
- If you are a contractor, web host of some kind or other service provider that is even peripherally facilitating the sale of a product in any fashion, you are in danger of out-of-state retailers canceling their contracts. This could include web design, web hosting (including out-of-state hosts with a server in California), coding, mobile apps, you name it.
- If you have any manner of advertising for out-of-state retailers, they will likely cancel any budget with you as advertising online itself could qualify as nexus.
Who supports this bill in the CA Legislature?
This bill was sponsored by Senator Hancock (Berkeley district, Democrat) and all votes have been on party lines (Democrats Aye, Republicans Nay). This bill is heavily lobbied by Walmart, Best Buy, Target and Home Depot who have thrown huge amounts of money behind this.
Here is the most recent Senate vote tally:
Ayes - Elaine Alquist, Ellen Corbett, Kevin De Len, Mark DeSaulnier, Noreen Evans, Loni Hancock, Ed Hernandez, Christine Kehoe, Mark Leno, Ted Lieu, Carol Liu, Alan Lowenthal, Gloria Negrete McLeod, Alex Padilla, Fran Pavley, Curren Price, Michael Rubio, Joseph Simitian, Juan Vargas, Lois Wolk, Roderick Wright, Leland Yee
Nays - Joel Anderson, Tom Berryhill, Sam Blakeslee, Ron Calderon, Anthony Cannella, Lou Correa, Robert Dutton, Bill Emmerson, Jean Fuller, Ted Gaines, Tom Harman, Bob Huff, Doug La Malfa, George Runner, Tony Strickland, Mimi Walters, Mark Wyland
The Strategy of the Bill:
This bill is very open-ended in order to give as much leeway as possible for interpretation. The strategy is to let the actual enforcement be decided upon by the personalities on the Board of Equalization without any clear definition of nexus.
What You Can Do:
I'm going to be personally trying to drum up opposition for this bill tomorrow in Sacramento along with several other members of the Performance Marketing Association. The best thing you can do to help is reply with your company name, url, number of employees and where you are located along with whether you oppose or whether this will actively harm your business.
Many politicians have been going on about how tech businesses are the future of California. Right now we need you to speak up about this so we can get them to listen. Many of the politicians directly in favor of this bill are the very ones who were elected in your districts!"},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"California Startups: Your Company's Fate May Be Decided Tomorrow"},"url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":""}},"_tags":["story","author_kposehn","story_2577063","ask_hn"],"author":"kposehn","children":[2577149,2577679,2577921,2578004,2578045,2595516],"created_at":"2011-05-23T18:54:02Z","created_at_i":1306176842,"num_comments":22,"objectID":"2577063","points":48,"story_id":2577063,"story_text":"Yes, I'm completely serious about that headline.
So, here's the situation:
I've been an affiliate marketer for a number of years before creating a new startup. One of the reasons I did this was to lessen the risk of the stupid Affiliate Tax laws from harming my business.
Anyway, after all this effort, the California State Senate came along and introduced SB234 (read the text here: http://leginfo.ca.gov/pub/11-12/bill/sen/sb_0201-0250/sb_234_bill_20110209_introduced.html )
Here's a quick summary of this bill:
- The goal of this bill is to establish through as many means possible that an out-of-state retailer has \"nexus\" - a physical presence which requires them to collect California sales tax.
- Nexus is defined in this bill as \"Any retailer having any representative, agent, salesperson, canvasser, independent contractor, or solicitor operating in this state under the authority of the retailer or its subsidiary for the purpose of selling, delivering, installing, assembling, or the taking of orders for any tangible personal property\"
- The result of this bill is that any out-of-state retailer will not have to collect sales tax if they sever business relationships with a large swath of contractors, service providers, ad networks and affiliates that have a presence in California.
What does this mean for you?
- If you are a company that in any way makes a commission or markets on behalf of another company as your monetization, you are in danger.
- If you are a contractor, web host of some kind or other service provider that is even peripherally facilitating the sale of a product in any fashion, you are in danger of out-of-state retailers canceling their contracts. This could include web design, web hosting (including out-of-state hosts with a server in California), coding, mobile apps, you name it.
- If you have any manner of advertising for out-of-state retailers, they will likely cancel any budget with you as advertising online itself could qualify as nexus.
Who supports this bill in the CA Legislature?
This bill was sponsored by Senator Hancock (Berkeley district, Democrat) and all votes have been on party lines (Democrats Aye, Republicans Nay). This bill is heavily lobbied by Walmart, Best Buy, Target and Home Depot who have thrown huge amounts of money behind this.
Here is the most recent Senate vote tally:
Ayes - Elaine Alquist, Ellen Corbett, Kevin De Len, Mark DeSaulnier, Noreen Evans, Loni Hancock, Ed Hernandez, Christine Kehoe, Mark Leno, Ted Lieu, Carol Liu, Alan Lowenthal, Gloria Negrete McLeod, Alex Padilla, Fran Pavley, Curren Price, Michael Rubio, Joseph Simitian, Juan Vargas, Lois Wolk, Roderick Wright, Leland Yee
Nays - Joel Anderson, Tom Berryhill, Sam Blakeslee, Ron Calderon, Anthony Cannella, Lou Correa, Robert Dutton, Bill Emmerson, Jean Fuller, Ted Gaines, Tom Harman, Bob Huff, Doug La Malfa, George Runner, Tony Strickland, Mimi Walters, Mark Wyland
The Strategy of the Bill:
This bill is very open-ended in order to give as much leeway as possible for interpretation. The strategy is to let the actual enforcement be decided upon by the personalities on the Board of Equalization without any clear definition of nexus.
What You Can Do:
I'm going to be personally trying to drum up opposition for this bill tomorrow in Sacramento along with several other members of the Performance Marketing Association. The best thing you can do to help is reply with your company name, url, number of employees and where you are located along with whether you oppose or whether this will actively harm your business.
Many politicians have been going on about how tech businesses are the future of California. Right now we need you to speak up about this so we can get them to listen. Many of the politicians directly in favor of this bill are the very ones who were elected in your districts!","title":"California Startups: Your Company's Fate May Be Decided Tomorrow","updated_at":"2023-09-06T19:51:55Z","url":""},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"jccooper"},"comment_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["sales","tax","nexus"],"value":""Why can't Americans play poker online?"
American anti-gambling laws.
"Why does Amazon have to collect state taxes for states they don't have a physical presence in?"
Because those states count things like affiliate programs and subsidiary companies as a sales tax "nexus". Amazon tends to kill those programs to avoid being taxable. They only collect sales tax in 24 states.
"Google is forced to censor French and German search results. Facebook is forced to follow EU privacy laws."
Yeah, because they have operations in those countries, and can thus be sued there. Also, perhaps, because they might be blocked in the relevant countries, and would rather stay in those markets.
The EU simply cannot make me collect VAT (or do any other crazy thing they think up), because I'm not in the EU. They can ban me or my services or products in their jurisdiction, or make life hard for my customers in their jurisdiction, which may be enough."},"story_title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Patreon to Europe on #VATMOSS: \u201cNot our problem, mate.\u201d"},"story_url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"https://idea15.wordpress.com/2015/02/04/patreon-to-europe-on-vatmoss-not-our-problem-mate/"}},"_tags":["comment","author_jccooper","story_9022054"],"author":"jccooper","children":[9039023],"comment_text":""Why can't Americans play poker online?"
American anti-gambling laws.
"Why does Amazon have to collect state taxes for states they don't have a physical presence in?"
Because those states count things like affiliate programs and subsidiary companies as a sales tax "nexus". Amazon tends to kill those programs to avoid being taxable. They only collect sales tax in 24 states.
"Google is forced to censor French and German search results. Facebook is forced to follow EU privacy laws."
Yeah, because they have operations in those countries, and can thus be sued there. Also, perhaps, because they might be blocked in the relevant countries, and would rather stay in those markets.
The EU simply cannot make me collect VAT (or do any other crazy thing they think up), because I'm not in the EU. They can ban me or my services or products in their jurisdiction, or make life hard for my customers in their jurisdiction, which may be enough.","created_at":"2015-02-09T20:27:25Z","created_at_i":1423513645,"objectID":"9023467","parent_id":9023077,"points":null,"story_id":9022054,"story_title":"Patreon to Europe on #VATMOSS: \u201cNot our problem, mate.\u201d","story_url":"https://idea15.wordpress.com/2015/02/04/patreon-to-europe-on-vatmoss-not-our-problem-mate/","updated_at":"2023-09-07T02:04:28Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"aaronbrethorst"},"comment_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["sales","tax","nexus"],"value":"They currently collect sales tax in 24 states[1,2], and I'm guessing the writing is on the wall in the other 26. I don't know if there's any truth to this Radio Shack rumor, but I'd expect that avoiding tax nexus status probably isn't as big a deal for them as it used to be, because they're going to be forced to do soon, one way or another.
[1] http://ilsr.org/rule/states-amazon-sales-tax-map/
[2] http://blog.taxjar.com/michigan-sales-tax-nexus-law/"},"story_title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Amazon Is in Talks to Buy RadioShack Stores, Report Says"},"story_url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"http://www.wired.com/2015/02/amazon-radioshack/"}},"_tags":["comment","author_aaronbrethorst","story_8993058"],"author":"aaronbrethorst","comment_text":"They currently collect sales tax in 24 states[1,2], and I'm guessing the writing is on the wall in the other 26. I don't know if there's any truth to this Radio Shack rumor, but I'd expect that avoiding tax nexus status probably isn't as big a deal for them as it used to be, because they're going to be forced to do soon, one way or another.
[1] http://ilsr.org/rule/states-amazon-sales-tax-map/
[2] http://blog.taxjar.com/michigan-sales-tax-nexus-law/","created_at":"2015-02-03T22:52:36Z","created_at_i":1423003956,"objectID":"8994073","parent_id":8994042,"points":null,"story_id":8993058,"story_title":"Amazon Is in Talks to Buy RadioShack Stores, Report Says","story_url":"http://www.wired.com/2015/02/amazon-radioshack/","updated_at":"2023-09-06T23:26:07Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"caseyohara"},"comment_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["sales","tax","nexus"],"value":"> LLMs are not search engines, and I'm not gaining any followers or customers in any meaningful way because an LLM indexes my site.
Counterpoint: my wife owns an accounting firm and publishes a lot of highly valuable informational content on their website's blog. Stuff like sales tax policies and rates in certain states, accounting/payroll best practices articles, etc. I guess you could call it "content marketing".
Lately they have been getting highly qualified leads coming from LLMs that cite her website's content when answering questions like "What is the sales tax nexus policy in California?". Users presumably follow the citation and then engage with the website, eventually becoming a very warm lead.
So LLMs are obviously not search engines in the conventional sense, but it doesn't mean they are not useful at generating valuable traffic to your marketing website."},"story_title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Blocking LLMs from your website cuts you off from next-generation search"},"story_url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"https://johnjianwang.medium.com/why-blocking-llms-from-your-website-is-dumb-3dc7c3c9097d"}},"_tags":["comment","author_caseyohara","story_44815125"],"author":"caseyohara","comment_text":"> LLMs are not search engines, and I'm not gaining any followers or customers in any meaningful way because an LLM indexes my site.
Counterpoint: my wife owns an accounting firm and publishes a lot of highly valuable informational content on their website's blog. Stuff like sales tax policies and rates in certain states, accounting/payroll best practices articles, etc. I guess you could call it "content marketing".
Lately they have been getting highly qualified leads coming from LLMs that cite her website's content when answering questions like "What is the sales tax nexus policy in California?". Users presumably follow the citation and then engage with the website, eventually becoming a very warm lead.
So LLMs are obviously not search engines in the conventional sense, but it doesn't mean they are not useful at generating valuable traffic to your marketing website.","created_at":"2025-08-06T19:36:58Z","created_at_i":1754509018,"objectID":"44816652","parent_id":44815820,"story_id":44815125,"story_title":"Blocking LLMs from your website cuts you off from next-generation search","story_url":"https://johnjianwang.medium.com/why-blocking-llms-from-your-website-is-dumb-3dc7c3c9097d","updated_at":"2026-03-05T22:29:16Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"caseyohara"},"comment_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["sales","tax","nexus"],"value":"Not likely; sales tax is extremely complicated in the US. There are 13,000 sales tax jurisdictions, and many of them have different and incompatible rules for things like sales tax nexus."},"story_title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"FTC bans hidden junk fees in hotel, event ticket prices"},"story_url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"https://www.cnbc.com/2024/12/17/ftc-bans-hidden-junk-fees-in-hotel-event-ticket-prices-.html"}},"_tags":["comment","author_caseyohara","story_42445037"],"author":"caseyohara","children":[42445866,42445870],"comment_text":"Not likely; sales tax is extremely complicated in the US. There are 13,000 sales tax jurisdictions, and many of them have different and incompatible rules for things like sales tax nexus.","created_at":"2024-12-17T21:52:23Z","created_at_i":1734472343,"objectID":"42445693","parent_id":42445589,"story_id":42445037,"story_title":"FTC bans hidden junk fees in hotel, event ticket prices","story_url":"https://www.cnbc.com/2024/12/17/ftc-bans-hidden-junk-fees-in-hotel-event-ticket-prices-.html","updated_at":"2024-12-18T21:32:11Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Dangeranger"},"comment_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["sales","tax","nexus"],"value":"> States are divested of the power to regulate interstate commerce. This is squarely jurisdiction of federal government, not the states.
It's not as simple as that. States can indeed apply their laws to interstate commerce in a myriad of ways, but not to the degree that the U.S. federal government can. States for example can force e-commerce companies to apply sales tax to purchases made by customers based in the given state, even though the business is based in another state. By your logic, the state should only be able to enforce their laws on the resident customer, but that's not true, they can apply their law to the online retailer who doesn't have a presence in the state and force them to collect the taxes on the state's behalf and remit the taxes to the state. [0]
As a second example, a state's minimum wage laws apply to any person who resides within the state, even if that person works remotely for a company based solely in another state. If you have a company in Illinois, your minimum wage is $12.00 per hour. If you employ a person who resides in California for remote work, you still must pay them the California minimum wage of $14.00 per hour. You must also adhere to other labor laws for the employee who resides in California for overtime, maximum hours worked per day, and others. [1]
> We simply disagree here. I see that they are purchasing IP within their state lines, you see something completely different.
We do disagree, but your opinion also disagrees with one-hundred years of U.S. employment case law, and so I would argue is factually incorrect.
[0] https://www.taxjar.com/sales-tax/nexus
[1] https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/minimum-wage/state#ca"},"story_title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"I employed a California resident, so now I\u2019m subject to its regulations"},"story_url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"https://ccleve.com/p/dont-hire-remote-employees-living"}},"_tags":["comment","author_Dangeranger","story_31194165"],"author":"Dangeranger","children":[31199472],"comment_text":"> States are divested of the power to regulate interstate commerce. This is squarely jurisdiction of federal government, not the states.
It's not as simple as that. States can indeed apply their laws to interstate commerce in a myriad of ways, but not to the degree that the U.S. federal government can. States for example can force e-commerce companies to apply sales tax to purchases made by customers based in the given state, even though the business is based in another state. By your logic, the state should only be able to enforce their laws on the resident customer, but that's not true, they can apply their law to the online retailer who doesn't have a presence in the state and force them to collect the taxes on the state's behalf and remit the taxes to the state. [0]
As a second example, a state's minimum wage laws apply to any person who resides within the state, even if that person works remotely for a company based solely in another state. If you have a company in Illinois, your minimum wage is $12.00 per hour. If you employ a person who resides in California for remote work, you still must pay them the California minimum wage of $14.00 per hour. You must also adhere to other labor laws for the employee who resides in California for overtime, maximum hours worked per day, and others. [1]
> We simply disagree here. I see that they are purchasing IP within their state lines, you see something completely different.
We do disagree, but your opinion also disagrees with one-hundred years of U.S. employment case law, and so I would argue is factually incorrect.
[0] https://www.taxjar.com/sales-tax/nexus
[1] https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/minimum-wage/state#ca","created_at":"2022-04-28T23:05:15Z","created_at_i":1651187115,"objectID":"31199332","parent_id":31199003,"story_id":31194165,"story_title":"I employed a California resident, so now I\u2019m subject to its regulations","story_url":"https://ccleve.com/p/dont-hire-remote-employees-living","updated_at":"2024-09-20T11:04:02Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"tzs"},"comment_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["sales","tax","nexus"],"value":"In 2018, in the case South Dakota v. Wayfair Inc. [1] the Supreme Court overturned Quill Corp. v. North Dakota and National Bellas Hess Inc. v. Department of Revenue of Illinois, which were the cases that had previously established that remote sellers without a physical presence in a state could tell the state to shove off if it demanded they collect sales tax (or use tax), and upheld South Dakota's law that required remote sellers to pay tax if they has sales of at least $100k or at least 200 transactions.
A large number of other states have followed South Dakota's lead, and went with $100k or 200 transactions for their sales tax nexus laws.
[1] https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/south-dakota-v-w..."},"story_title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Ask HN: Why aren't micropayments a thing?"}},"_tags":["comment","author_tzs","story_25875386"],"author":"tzs","comment_text":"In 2018, in the case South Dakota v. Wayfair Inc. [1] the Supreme Court overturned Quill Corp. v. North Dakota and National Bellas Hess Inc. v. Department of Revenue of Illinois, which were the cases that had previously established that remote sellers without a physical presence in a state could tell the state to shove off if it demanded they collect sales tax (or use tax), and upheld South Dakota's law that required remote sellers to pay tax if they has sales of at least $100k or at least 200 transactions.
A large number of other states have followed South Dakota's lead, and went with $100k or 200 transactions for their sales tax nexus laws.
[1] https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/south-dakota-v-w...","created_at":"2021-01-22T23:13:08Z","created_at_i":1611357188,"objectID":"25877505","parent_id":25876907,"story_id":25875386,"story_title":"Ask HN: Why aren't micropayments a thing?","updated_at":"2024-09-20T07:51:03Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"elasticventures"},"comment_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["sales","tax","nexus"],"value":"eBay is not same-same, it's much more marketplace-esque.
eBay does not use a consolidated product listing, much more like a bulletin board each sellers products being sold under it's own URL. Amazon consolidates the listing for all sellers into a single product and uses their own ranking algorithms to determine which seller is in the "buy box" (which accounts for 97% of the items sales velocity). Amazon treats the entire experience as their transaction, they anonymize the emails and don't allow sellers to send follow-messages to clients or market other products to them (package inserts). \nThe cart-checkout process isn't broken down by seller either, it's a unified payment and "1 click" checkout. I don't feel bad for Amazon at all - they've had it coming!
FWIW .. I was the first person (as a 3rd party) to develop an integration with Amazon's marketplace. I also personally won eBays' star developer award. I recall the year the Internet Retailer show was in San Diego and Amazon didn't have an employee there. It was against Amazon corporate rules to allow employees to spend the night in CA in fear it would create sales tax nexus. Amazon employees would need to fly back to Seattle and then fly back to San Diego if they came down for a friday meeting and wanted to spend the weekend on personal time! \nAmazon has gamed the rules, they compete directly with their clients (sellers) using the sales data to decide what product to source. They ran their warehouses as 3rd party entities to avoid nexus and begrudging accepted 3rd party (non-Amazon owned) sellers when the courts ruled that wholly owned entities would create sales-tax nexus. I feel no pity for them."},"story_title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Amazon Liable for Defective Third-Party Products Rules CA Appellate Court"},"story_url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"https://californiaglobe.com/section-2/amazon-liable-for-defective-third-party-products-rules-ca-appelate-court/"}},"_tags":["comment","author_elasticventures","story_24174276"],"author":"elasticventures","children":[24175022,24175056,24175983,24177077],"comment_text":"eBay is not same-same, it's much more marketplace-esque.
eBay does not use a consolidated product listing, much more like a bulletin board each sellers products being sold under it's own URL. Amazon consolidates the listing for all sellers into a single product and uses their own ranking algorithms to determine which seller is in the "buy box" (which accounts for 97% of the items sales velocity). Amazon treats the entire experience as their transaction, they anonymize the emails and don't allow sellers to send follow-messages to clients or market other products to them (package inserts). \nThe cart-checkout process isn't broken down by seller either, it's a unified payment and "1 click" checkout. I don't feel bad for Amazon at all - they've had it coming!
FWIW .. I was the first person (as a 3rd party) to develop an integration with Amazon's marketplace. I also personally won eBays' star developer award. I recall the year the Internet Retailer show was in San Diego and Amazon didn't have an employee there. It was against Amazon corporate rules to allow employees to spend the night in CA in fear it would create sales tax nexus. Amazon employees would need to fly back to Seattle and then fly back to San Diego if they came down for a friday meeting and wanted to spend the weekend on personal time! \nAmazon has gamed the rules, they compete directly with their clients (sellers) using the sales data to decide what product to source. They ran their warehouses as 3rd party entities to avoid nexus and begrudging accepted 3rd party (non-Amazon owned) sellers when the courts ruled that wholly owned entities would create sales-tax nexus. I feel no pity for them.","created_at":"2020-08-16T03:55:10Z","created_at_i":1597550110,"objectID":"24174918","parent_id":24174276,"story_id":24174276,"story_title":"Amazon Liable for Defective Third-Party Products Rules CA Appellate Court","story_url":"https://californiaglobe.com/section-2/amazon-liable-for-defective-third-party-products-rules-ca-appelate-court/","updated_at":"2025-10-06T21:09:01Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Keverw"},"comment_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["sales","tax","nexus"],"value":"I wonder if this is doing more harm than good...
Some people want to do these types of gigs for extra income, but now if your an employee then probably companies will want you to be on a schedule and a minimum number of hours.
I forget where but seen a story where someone was told by one of their clients that they were letting them go because of this new law. Happened to be their biggest client too, but they were doing remote work and lived in California...
So now I guess some companies might want to let go of people from California and contract with residents of Texas or any other state instead.
Kinda reminds me of when states started changing their sales tax nexus laws, I was doing affiliate marketing but didn't have any success as still starting out.
But my state changed their law to try to collect from remote sellers and changed it to count affiliate sales too. So I got a notice kicking me out of the program on a short notice... If I had built up landing pages and traffic, I'd be left holding the bag... or adjust them to aim at another company but would have been a huge setback.
You could go from making a comfy living online to making zero. I know gurus tell people to build up multiple streams of income, but in this case, all companies could do the same. Look at affiliate sales from the state, look at compliance costs... If making enough sales to justify then comply or just ban residents of the said state from the program and move on. So by trying to tax companies, they could have ended up hurting their residents instead. So by trying to get sales tax, they ended up with neither, losing out on both sales tax along with the income tax on the commissions since companies just decided to pull out completely from letting those residents be affiliates, so they were longer eligible to earned any commissions.
"We regret to inform you that Nexus state tax regulations in Ohio were just passed July 1st of this year. Unfortunately, we are unable to work with any Ohio based affiliates, due to the Nexus Tax Laws currently under enforcement in the state."
This was back in 2015. I think more than a few states changed their laws on this, I believe they are referred to as a cookie nexus. and some programs have a minimum threshold to cash out too. So I guess they can kick you out and keep your money... Lucky I didn't have any in my account as was recently dabbling in this area.
So kinda sad that you could lose out on income just because of the state you are domiciled in. Wouldn't surprise me if other companies outside of California is going to end contracts with people just because they live in California. Kinda feels like discrimination in a way.
However maybe setting up a corporation instead of being a sole proprietorship that could be a workaround. Don't deal with California individuals, deal with California companies instead even if it's just only a company size of 1. So ride sharing apps could require drivers to set up an LLC and pay that instead of paying them directly maybe. But then California has high taxes and franchise fees already, so maybe it's just not worth it. There's already a mass exodus from California, so wouldn't surprise me if this makes even more people question if they should leave the state also. Move somewhere cheaper and get to keep your clients too if you are a freelancer."},"story_title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"California passes bill that classifies gig economy workers as employees"},"story_url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/11/technology/california-passes-landmark-bill-to-remake-gig-economy.html"}},"_tags":["comment","author_Keverw","story_20936610"],"author":"Keverw","comment_text":"I wonder if this is doing more harm than good...
Some people want to do these types of gigs for extra income, but now if your an employee then probably companies will want you to be on a schedule and a minimum number of hours.
I forget where but seen a story where someone was told by one of their clients that they were letting them go because of this new law. Happened to be their biggest client too, but they were doing remote work and lived in California...
So now I guess some companies might want to let go of people from California and contract with residents of Texas or any other state instead.
Kinda reminds me of when states started changing their sales tax nexus laws, I was doing affiliate marketing but didn't have any success as still starting out.
But my state changed their law to try to collect from remote sellers and changed it to count affiliate sales too. So I got a notice kicking me out of the program on a short notice... If I had built up landing pages and traffic, I'd be left holding the bag... or adjust them to aim at another company but would have been a huge setback.
You could go from making a comfy living online to making zero. I know gurus tell people to build up multiple streams of income, but in this case, all companies could do the same. Look at affiliate sales from the state, look at compliance costs... If making enough sales to justify then comply or just ban residents of the said state from the program and move on. So by trying to tax companies, they could have ended up hurting their residents instead. So by trying to get sales tax, they ended up with neither, losing out on both sales tax along with the income tax on the commissions since companies just decided to pull out completely from letting those residents be affiliates, so they were longer eligible to earned any commissions.
"We regret to inform you that Nexus state tax regulations in Ohio were just passed July 1st of this year. Unfortunately, we are unable to work with any Ohio based affiliates, due to the Nexus Tax Laws currently under enforcement in the state."
This was back in 2015. I think more than a few states changed their laws on this, I believe they are referred to as a cookie nexus. and some programs have a minimum threshold to cash out too. So I guess they can kick you out and keep your money... Lucky I didn't have any in my account as was recently dabbling in this area.
So kinda sad that you could lose out on income just because of the state you are domiciled in. Wouldn't surprise me if other companies outside of California is going to end contracts with people just because they live in California. Kinda feels like discrimination in a way.
However maybe setting up a corporation instead of being a sole proprietorship that could be a workaround. Don't deal with California individuals, deal with California companies instead even if it's just only a company size of 1. So ride sharing apps could require drivers to set up an LLC and pay that instead of paying them directly maybe. But then California has high taxes and franchise fees already, so maybe it's just not worth it. There's already a mass exodus from California, so wouldn't surprise me if this makes even more people question if they should leave the state also. Move somewhere cheaper and get to keep your clients too if you are a freelancer.","created_at":"2019-09-11T07:02:56Z","created_at_i":1568185376,"objectID":"20937315","parent_id":20936610,"story_id":20936610,"story_title":"California passes bill that classifies gig economy workers as employees","story_url":"https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/11/technology/california-passes-landmark-bill-to-remake-gig-economy.html","updated_at":"2024-09-20T04:47:39Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"mindslight"},"comment_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["sales","tax","nexus"],"value":"But how can it not come down to judgment calls? We're essentially trying to define the contour of a new right. If we stick with the axiomatic approach, then it feels like we can only end up essentially right back where we are now - data collected by companies is theirs to do with as they like.
FWIW are you sure it would be a race to the bottom (companies going to the least-restrictive state) ? In the context of salestax/cookie-nexus, I would have hopes that it would be a race to the top (users benefiting from being in a more-restrictive state). Which is why I'd think the worry would be every random service demanding to verify your address to keep you from claiming to be in the more restrictive states."},"story_title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Senate Testimony on Privacy Rights and Data Collection in a Digital Economy"},"story_url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"https://idlewords.com/talks/senate_testimony.2019.5.htm"}},"_tags":["comment","author_mindslight","story_19893518"],"author":"mindslight","comment_text":"But how can it not come down to judgment calls? We're essentially trying to define the contour of a new right. If we stick with the axiomatic approach, then it feels like we can only end up essentially right back where we are now - data collected by companies is theirs to do with as they like.
FWIW are you sure it would be a race to the bottom (companies going to the least-restrictive state) ? In the context of salestax/cookie-nexus, I would have hopes that it would be a race to the top (users benefiting from being in a more-restrictive state). Which is why I'd think the worry would be every random service demanding to verify your address to keep you from claiming to be in the more restrictive states.","created_at":"2019-05-12T20:32:35Z","created_at_i":1557693155,"objectID":"19894378","parent_id":19894273,"story_id":19893518,"story_title":"Senate Testimony on Privacy Rights and Data Collection in a Digital Economy","story_url":"https://idlewords.com/talks/senate_testimony.2019.5.htm","updated_at":"2024-09-20T04:18:12Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"jakejohnson"},"comment_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["sales","tax","nexus"],"value":"If you're just starting out, I'd register and collect sales tax in the state where you have a physical presence. You would only collect and remit sales tax in that state. As you grow your business, you may need to consider economic nexus thresholds to determine if you have nexus in additional states based on revenue or order volume [1].
You may have different sales tax obligations if you decide to sell on a marketplace such as Amazon. FBA sellers may have additional nexuses based on where Amazon is storing your products in fulfillment centers [2]. Marketplace facilitator laws are taking effect where the marketplace may collect and remit sales tax on your behalf in specific states, but you may still be obligated to report sales tax [3].
All of this can get complicated fast. As always, it's a good idea to talk to a CPA or tax professional first.
[1]: https://blog.taxjar.com/economic-nexus-laws/\n[2]: https://blog.taxjar.com/find-amazon-fba-sales-tax-nexus/\n[3]: https://blog.taxjar.com/sales-tax-by-state-marketplace-facil..."},"story_title":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["sales","tax"],"value":"Ask HN: How are you handling US sales tax?"}},"_tags":["comment","author_jakejohnson","story_18886369"],"author":"jakejohnson","comment_text":"If you're just starting out, I'd register and collect sales tax in the state where you have a physical presence. You would only collect and remit sales tax in that state. As you grow your business, you may need to consider economic nexus thresholds to determine if you have nexus in additional states based on revenue or order volume [1].
You may have different sales tax obligations if you decide to sell on a marketplace such as Amazon. FBA sellers may have additional nexuses based on where Amazon is storing your products in fulfillment centers [2]. Marketplace facilitator laws are taking effect where the marketplace may collect and remit sales tax on your behalf in specific states, but you may still be obligated to report sales tax [3].
All of this can get complicated fast. As always, it's a good idea to talk to a CPA or tax professional first.
[1]: https://blog.taxjar.com/economic-nexus-laws/\n[2]: https://blog.taxjar.com/find-amazon-fba-sales-tax-nexus/\n[3]: https://blog.taxjar.com/sales-tax-by-state-marketplace-facil...","created_at":"2019-01-11T20:26:51Z","created_at_i":1547238411,"objectID":"18886622","parent_id":18886369,"story_id":18886369,"story_title":"Ask HN: How are you handling US sales tax?","updated_at":"2024-09-20T03:36:07Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"rdl"},"comment_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["sales","tax","nexus"],"value":"I\u2019m kind of surprised post-sales tax nexus Amazon hasn\u2019t bought a coffee chain yet. Starbucks might be too big to do comfortably, but a combination of some higher end local brands (Intelligentsia, Philz, etc) aggregated into some overarching metabrand would be interesting. Let the cafes run everything as they have, with infinite capital available, and focus on providing additional value added services on premise (obviously lockers but maybe some next-gen amazon services).
Philz would almost make sense if they could put 1Gbps connectivity into AWS and specifically base the performance of the deal on AWS signups."},"story_title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Coca-Cola to buy Costa coffee for \u00a33.9bn"},"story_url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"https://www.bbc.com/news/business-45365893"}},"_tags":["comment","author_rdl","story_17884299"],"author":"rdl","children":[17884466,17884477,17885355],"comment_text":"I\u2019m kind of surprised post-sales tax nexus Amazon hasn\u2019t bought a coffee chain yet. Starbucks might be too big to do comfortably, but a combination of some higher end local brands (Intelligentsia, Philz, etc) aggregated into some overarching metabrand would be interesting. Let the cafes run everything as they have, with infinite capital available, and focus on providing additional value added services on premise (obviously lockers but maybe some next-gen amazon services).
Philz would almost make sense if they could put 1Gbps connectivity into AWS and specifically base the performance of the deal on AWS signups.","created_at":"2018-08-31T10:34:30Z","created_at_i":1535711670,"objectID":"17884406","parent_id":17884299,"story_id":17884299,"story_title":"Coca-Cola to buy Costa coffee for \u00a33.9bn","story_url":"https://www.bbc.com/news/business-45365893","updated_at":"2024-09-20T03:01:35Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Scott_MacGregor"},"comment_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["sales","tax","nexus"],"value":"Just for a heads up, here is a 7 minute candid talk, by the Governor of Texas on you tube from 2008, about how Texas views taxes including its sales tax.
With all of the discussion about Rackspace and etc... servers creating a nexus to the state of Texas for e-commerce sales tax collection, I thought since we are in the Austin area I would give everyone a heads up on some of the Governors thinking behind it.
The Governors name is Rick Perry, and he is currently up for re-election right now, so he might be more willing to listen to your views now than later. Texas is very business friendly, and as Californians that is why we chose to locate here.
Austin is the heart of the Texas start-up community and the government here is well aware of it.
If you are concerned about the Red Tape or cost impact of the \"Sales Tax\" Nexus situation, here is the Governors contact page where you can send him a message and any suggestion you may have:\nhttp://governor.state.tx.us/contact/"},"story_title":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["tax"],"value":"Texas Governor Talks About Taxes [2008 YouTube]"},"story_url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HdbBl9Ss94"}},"_tags":["comment","author_Scott_MacGregor","story_1785965"],"author":"Scott_MacGregor","comment_text":"Just for a heads up, here is a 7 minute candid talk, by the Governor of Texas on you tube from 2008, about how Texas views taxes including its sales tax.
With all of the discussion about Rackspace and etc... servers creating a nexus to the state of Texas for e-commerce sales tax collection, I thought since we are in the Austin area I would give everyone a heads up on some of the Governors thinking behind it.
The Governors name is Rick Perry, and he is currently up for re-election right now, so he might be more willing to listen to your views now than later. Texas is very business friendly, and as Californians that is why we chose to locate here.
Austin is the heart of the Texas start-up community and the government here is well aware of it.
If you are concerned about the Red Tape or cost impact of the \"Sales Tax\" Nexus situation, here is the Governors contact page where you can send him a message and any suggestion you may have:\nhttp://governor.state.tx.us/contact/","created_at":"2010-10-13T03:20:20Z","created_at_i":1286940020,"objectID":"1785969","parent_id":1785965,"points":null,"story_id":1785965,"story_title":"Texas Governor Talks About Taxes [2008 YouTube]","story_url":"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HdbBl9Ss94","updated_at":"2023-09-06T20:08:02Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"masonic"},"comment_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["sales","tax","nexus"],"value":"I doubt it.
There is no "USA sales tax" or VAT. But there are hundreds of different sales tax nexuses at the state, county, and city level."},"story_title":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["sales","tax"],"value":"Ask HN: US sales tax for ecommerce \u201cplatforms\u201d (not sellers)"}},"_tags":["comment","author_masonic","story_17371411"],"author":"masonic","comment_text":"I doubt it.
There is no "USA sales tax" or VAT. But there are hundreds of different sales tax nexuses at the state, county, and city level.","created_at":"2018-06-22T06:29:55Z","created_at_i":1529648995,"objectID":"17371861","parent_id":17371411,"story_id":17371411,"story_title":"Ask HN: US sales tax for ecommerce \u201cplatforms\u201d (not sellers)","updated_at":"2024-09-20T02:38:24Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"gamblor956"},"comment_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["sales","tax","nexus"],"value":"All state-level taxes require nexus, even gross receipts taxes. I don't know who told you otherwise but they were misinformed. Gross receipts nexus is higher than sales taxes, because it claims know income.
Having a Nexus for one type of tax does not make you liable for other taxes, i.e., sales tax Nexus doesn't necessarily subject you to income taxes in that state."},"story_title":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["sales","tax"],"value":"Supreme Court Takes Up Internet Sales Tax Conundrum"},"story_url":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["sales"],"value":"http://reason.com/volokh/2018/01/20/supreme-court-takes-up-internet-sales-ta"}},"_tags":["comment","author_gamblor956","story_16194478"],"author":"gamblor956","children":[16195341,16195437],"comment_text":"All state-level taxes require nexus, even gross receipts taxes. I don't know who told you otherwise but they were misinformed. Gross receipts nexus is higher than sales taxes, because it claims know income.
Having a Nexus for one type of tax does not make you liable for other taxes, i.e., sales tax Nexus doesn't necessarily subject you to income taxes in that state.","created_at":"2018-01-20T20:46:18Z","created_at_i":1516481178,"objectID":"16195328","parent_id":16195044,"story_id":16194478,"story_title":"Supreme Court Takes Up Internet Sales Tax Conundrum","story_url":"http://reason.com/volokh/2018/01/20/supreme-court-takes-up-internet-sales-ta","updated_at":"2024-09-20T01:58:07Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"joelhaus"},"comment_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["sales","tax","nexus"],"value":"I think it's fair to say that you should consult a tax professional before forming a legal entity; however, it's also important to have a general understanding of each entity types' cost/benefit. There's plenty of info on the web.
Additionally, for purposes of this discussion, legal entities are formed exclusively under state laws. While you can incorporate anywhere, most states require a registered agent be present domestically. You can hire firms like CTcorp to fill this role. The second consideration is your \"physical\" location. What constitutes nexus (especially for technology companies) is the subject of some controversy, but the specific legislation varies among states. Generally, nexus for income tax occurs in the locations where value is generated. This usually means the location of a firm's assets and employees. Sales tax nexus is even more ambiguous. Here's a better explanation than I could ever give: http://web.archive.org/web/20021001165628/http://www.aicpa.o...
Treatment at the federal level is uniform. Imagine that a significant portion of HN visitors are located in CA, so skmurphy's advice is worth paying attention to!"},"story_title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"The Simplicity Test: A Simple Policy Guide for Job Growth"},"story_url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"http://blogmaverick.com/2010/01/31/the-simplicity-test-a-simple-policy-guide-for-job-growth/"}},"_tags":["comment","author_joelhaus","story_1090714"],"author":"joelhaus","comment_text":"I think it's fair to say that you should consult a tax professional before forming a legal entity; however, it's also important to have a general understanding of each entity types' cost/benefit. There's plenty of info on the web.
Additionally, for purposes of this discussion, legal entities are formed exclusively under state laws. While you can incorporate anywhere, most states require a registered agent be present domestically. You can hire firms like CTcorp to fill this role. The second consideration is your \"physical\" location. What constitutes nexus (especially for technology companies) is the subject of some controversy, but the specific legislation varies among states. Generally, nexus for income tax occurs in the locations where value is generated. This usually means the location of a firm's assets and employees. Sales tax nexus is even more ambiguous. Here's a better explanation than I could ever give: http://web.archive.org/web/20021001165628/http://www.aicpa.o...
Treatment at the federal level is uniform. Imagine that a significant portion of HN visitors are located in CA, so skmurphy's advice is worth paying attention to!","created_at":"2010-02-01T00:14:38Z","created_at_i":1264983278,"objectID":"1091405","parent_id":1091298,"story_id":1090714,"story_title":"The Simplicity Test: A Simple Policy Guide for Job Growth","story_url":"http://blogmaverick.com/2010/01/31/the-simplicity-test-a-simple-policy-guide-for-job-growth/","updated_at":"2024-09-19T16:54:42Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"gamblor956"},"comment_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["sales","tax","nexus"],"value":"CO has a very unique sales tax system: every county, city, and special district can set its own rates, and define taxable (or nontaxable) product categories, and determine the taxability of of those product categories, and even apply special (formulaic) discounts for complying with the tax regime. Plus, a number of tax jurisdictions overlap. And this is the simplified system that the state implemented in 2019 to make things easier for remote sellers in a post-Wayfair world.
And that doesn't even include the roughly 70 home-rule cities which administer their sales tax separately from the state's "simplified" tax system.
For filing purposes, each CO "tax location" is treated as a separate return by Avalara and other sales tax services providers, so the costs can add up very quickly for remote sellers using these services for sales tax reporting compliance: Denver alone has more than two dozen separate "tax locations." Consequently, at my company we use Avalara to compute sales tax for remote sales to CO but file the CO returns ourselves and save several thousand $$$ each month.
Luckily, due to Wayfair nexus requirements, CO sales tax compliance only kicks in at 100k or more in gross sales to CO (not including sales to home-rule cities). Because each home-rule city has its own sale tax system, the nexus threshold is independent for each home rule city; the state has advised these cities to set a threshold of $100k to avoid nexus-related litigation that could result in a bright-line rule setting an undesirably high threshold for nexus."},"story_title":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["tax"],"value":"Stripe Tax"},"story_url":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["tax"],"value":"https://stripe.com/tax"}},"_tags":["comment","author_gamblor956","story_27459712"],"author":"gamblor956","comment_text":"CO has a very unique sales tax system: every county, city, and special district can set its own rates, and define taxable (or nontaxable) product categories, and determine the taxability of of those product categories, and even apply special (formulaic) discounts for complying with the tax regime. Plus, a number of tax jurisdictions overlap. And this is the simplified system that the state implemented in 2019 to make things easier for remote sellers in a post-Wayfair world.
And that doesn't even include the roughly 70 home-rule cities which administer their sales tax separately from the state's "simplified" tax system.
For filing purposes, each CO "tax location" is treated as a separate return by Avalara and other sales tax services providers, so the costs can add up very quickly for remote sellers using these services for sales tax reporting compliance: Denver alone has more than two dozen separate "tax locations." Consequently, at my company we use Avalara to compute sales tax for remote sales to CO but file the CO returns ourselves and save several thousand $$$ each month.
Luckily, due to Wayfair nexus requirements, CO sales tax compliance only kicks in at 100k or more in gross sales to CO (not including sales to home-rule cities). Because each home-rule city has its own sale tax system, the nexus threshold is independent for each home rule city; the state has advised these cities to set a threshold of $100k to avoid nexus-related litigation that could result in a bright-line rule setting an undesirably high threshold for nexus.","created_at":"2021-06-10T16:45:05Z","created_at_i":1623343505,"objectID":"27462721","parent_id":27462048,"story_id":27459712,"story_title":"Stripe Tax","story_url":"https://stripe.com/tax","updated_at":"2024-09-20T08:45:56Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"jasode"},"comment_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["sales","tax","nexus"],"value":">Airbnb: we don't need to own hotel properties and employ managers and housekeepers
Fyi because this is a common misunderstanding: Hotel chains like Marriott, Hilton, Four Seasons, etc also do not own most of their physical properties[1]. They are primarily management companies instead of owning a portfolio of real estate. If you see a Hilton logo on the side of a building, it doesn't mean that Hilton actually owns it. The logo is there because they have a long-term contract to manage the hotel for the real owners of that property.
>Amazon: we don't need to own retail stores or inventory
Amazon isn't a totally "virtual" company. Amazon owns (or leases) physical distribution centers instead of retail stores. They've always paid sales taxes based on nexus of those DCs. What's recently changed (circa 2017?) was collecting sales taxes on behalf of 3rd-party marketplace sellers.
[1] https://www.quora.com/Do-hotel-chains-like-Hilton-Mandarin-o..."},"story_title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Canada to apply GST/HST to short-term rentals booked online"},"story_url":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["tax"],"value":"https://thinkpol.ca/2020/12/01/airbnb-asked-canada-for-a-bailout-canada-slapped-airbnb-with-a-tax/"}},"_tags":["comment","author_jasode","story_25273618"],"author":"jasode","comment_text":">Airbnb: we don't need to own hotel properties and employ managers and housekeepers
Fyi because this is a common misunderstanding: Hotel chains like Marriott, Hilton, Four Seasons, etc also do not own most of their physical properties[1]. They are primarily management companies instead of owning a portfolio of real estate. If you see a Hilton logo on the side of a building, it doesn't mean that Hilton actually owns it. The logo is there because they have a long-term contract to manage the hotel for the real owners of that property.
>Amazon: we don't need to own retail stores or inventory
Amazon isn't a totally "virtual" company. Amazon owns (or leases) physical distribution centers instead of retail stores. They've always paid sales taxes based on nexus of those DCs. What's recently changed (circa 2017?) was collecting sales taxes on behalf of 3rd-party marketplace sellers.
[1] https://www.quora.com/Do-hotel-chains-like-Hilton-Mandarin-o...","created_at":"2020-12-02T14:46:38Z","created_at_i":1606920398,"objectID":"25276753","parent_id":25274563,"story_id":25273618,"story_title":"Canada to apply GST/HST to short-term rentals booked online","story_url":"https://thinkpol.ca/2020/12/01/airbnb-asked-canada-for-a-bailout-canada-slapped-airbnb-with-a-tax/","updated_at":"2024-09-20T07:29:54Z"}],"hitsPerPage":20,"nbHits":261,"nbPages":14,"page":0,"params":"query=sales+tax+nexus&advancedSyntax=true&analyticsTags=backend","processingTimeMS":25,"processingTimingsMS":{"_request":{"roundTrip":16},"afterFetch":{"format":{"highlighting":1,"total":1},"merge":{"mergeLoop":{"prepareNextHit":11,"total":11},"total":11},"total":11},"fetch":{"query":6,"scanning":6,"total":13},"total":25},"query":"sales tax nexus","serverTimeMS":28}