I guess that’s where I question the law as fair treatment.  Because it is trackable you get taxed?

I think she means that with Amazon you don’t earn a commission simply for a click, the person who clicks through then has to go ahead and buy something, and then you get the commission, whereas Google adsense pays for the more abstract click regardless of what the consumer buys or not after that. So it’s easier to pass this law on Amazon because they do track how those leads get generated, whereas with Google, it’s less clear when a click leads to a specific sale.

I think she means that with Amazon you don’t earn a commission simply for a click, the person who clicks through then has to go ahead and buy something, and then you get the commission, whereas Google adsense pays for the more abstract click regardless of what the consumer buys or not after that. So it’s easier to pass this law on Amazon because they do track how those leads get generated, whereas with Google, it’s less clear when a click leads to a specific sale.

thanks for your comment julie.  I guess maybe I was unclear.  Are you saying that companies selling products through google adsense are different than amazon?  For example, what if amazon were to use adsense to sell their products to California residents. What I’m saying is that anyone who contributes to the sales of your products and services should be treated the same.  Even if you are only getting leads from google, those are still contributing to dollars and cents for your company.  

Going only by your comments, it sounds like that would also exempt any California affiliates of Amazon who aren’t specifically targeting California residents.

But, like most aspects of these ridiculous kinds of tax law, the practicality of tracking the details is akin to tracking the migration paths of individual gnats.  What, gnats don’t migrate?  TRACK THEM ANYWAY!

So… Merchants thatt are simply using Adsense and similar tools to have their ads displayed don’t have to worry about collecting California sales tax. It is possible that sies displaying such ads may have to certify that they are not doing anything to target the ads specifically to California customers.

That’s my interpretation. Anyone else?