November 23, 2008
Buffalo News Interviews Tax Counsel Joseph Henchman on the Amazon Tax
"New Tax Law Send Valore Books Packing"
By Stephen T. Watson
The state, in an attempt to collect millions of dollars more in sales tax, this year passed a law that forced many large Web retailers to collect the tax on sales to buyers in the state.
The "Amazon tax" affected out-ofstate retailers that worked through small companies or nonprofits based in New York.
Many responded by dropping their affiliates in the state.
"That's basically the option: Be a tax collector or get out. There are other companies that have just quit the state," said Joe Henchman, tax counsel for the Tax Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization in Washington, D.C.
