In a Barnes & Noble press release issued today, B&N is openly courting former Amazon affiliates who were terminated by Amazon because of state sales tax laws.
An affiliate is basically a Web site that provides links to the main bookseller. Those links contain an affiliate code, and the bookseller pays the affiliate a small commission on each sale made from such links. Info on B&N's affiliate program: http://bn.com/affiliate
Some states are declaring that an affiliate located within the state constitutes a "nexus" for the corporation within the state, and therefore the corporation must collect state sales tax on all sales made in that state, whether through the affiliate or not. So far, Amazon has terminated its affiliates in Colorado, North Carolina, Rhode Island, and now Texas. California and Hawaii tried to enact similar laws in 2009 (AB178 and HB1405, respectively), but both were vetoed by the state Governors.
Amazon currently collects sales tax only for sales to Kansas, Kentucky, New York, North Dakota, and Washington. Barnes & Noble, on the other hand, has a physical presence in just about every state, so it's already collecting sales taxes. Therefore, the affiliates would not change B&N's tax situation.
