New Illinois taxes cause Amazon to give me the axe

Thanks to new Illinois tax law, Amazon affiliates like myself have all been given the axe. Pictured above is my email notice that I received from Amazon.com regarding the issue.

As of April 15th, Amazon is terminating accounts for any affiliate with an address in Illinois. While my income was minuscule and doesn’t affect me that much, I do feel sorry for those with full fledged business that revolve around affiliate sales for Amazon. They will lose significant amount revenue unless they high tail it out of the state in the next 30 days or so. Illinois is the 4th state (Rhode Island, North Carolina, and Colorado) to pass such a law and Amazon has dropped all their affiliates in every case so far.

I wonder what made the Illinois law makers think that imposing these new tax laws would work? With Amazon cutting ties, it will be business as usual for them. They still won’t collect taxes for purchases, so Illinois will still get zero tax revenue from Amazon just as it is now. On the other hand, Illinois will lose all the income tax revenue it receives as these affiliates either close up shop or move away to a new state without such laws.

This new law is counterproductive and I have a feeling it will backfire on the state. What’s your feeling on it?