One of the world's biggest online retailers, Amazon.com, announced that it will no longer pay referral fees to Colorado bloggers and nonprofit charities who advertise Amazon's products on their websites. The reason? Amazon is unhappy about a law passed in our state, asking online retailers to help in the collection of the state's longstanding 2.9% tax--a tax we all already pay to merchants every day, both online and offline.
After profiting from millions of dollars in tax-free sales to Colorado residents for years, Amazon.com is determined to protect their unfair advantage over local brick-and-mortar retailers. When the state legislature passed a law to enforce collection of taxes for online purchases, lawmakers understood that one of the key effects would be leveling the playing field between massive online merchants like Amazon.com and local retailers who pay their taxes and employ Coloradans.
Local businesses like Tattered Cover Books and Ultimate Electronics, who employ thousands of Colorado residents and pay their sales taxes back into the community, have suffered greatly while giant corporations like Amazon.com profited from their tax-free sales advantage. Today, with Colorado in the midst of the greatest fiscal crisis since the Great Depression, properly collecting taxes owed on these purchases means millions of dollars in badly-needed revenue for schools, roads, and health care.
We pledge to shop elsewhere until Amazon.com stops using Coloradans as pawns.