New York State Girds for War With Amazon - Bits - Technology - New York Times Blog

Hmm...

The state is proposing defining Amazon’s affiliates—Web sites that earn commissions by referring customers to it—as a physical presence. Amazon argues that affiliates are not representatives but simply companies that accept advertising from it. It also says that it can’t be expected to figure out all the various permutations of local taxes.

I noted in a post last year that the complexity argument may be outmoded by new technologies. That post spawned quite a debate on the merits of the issue, as did one Friday by Stephen J. Dubner over at the Freakonomics blog.

New York State Girds for War With Amazon - Bits - Technology - New York Times Blog