I have just been informed of a new internet Sales Tax regulation in New York. It is titled: New Presumption Applicable to Definition of Sales Tax Vendor. The key word here is presumptive. The interpretation by New York State is to presume that a sale is taxable based on a convoluted reasoning that no reasonable person could ever arrive at in a million years.

Here’s what they are saying. If a New York Resident mentions a web site in another state, and that web site makes sales to New York residents, then the sale is presumed to have originated in New York and the sale is taxable.

Right now, the sale is not taxable unless the company doing the selling maintains a brick and mortar presence in New York.

For instance: I am a New York Resident and I own a domain name. I keep a blog on a server in Germany under that domain. If I put a link link on the blog to a company in California that sells paper clips and a New York Resident buys some of these paper clips, New York State wants the sales tax, even if no one has ever even read my blog.

Here is the New York State PDF: New Presumption Applicable to Definition of Sales Tax Vendor

I certainly hope that this is squashed immediately. It affects me, because affiliate links on my we pages go to an affiliate company that refers the links to the catalog page of another company that will now have to pay and collect sales tax. It would be simpler for the company to drop all New York State residents and not charge sales tax for New York deliveries.

If you buy their reasoning, everyone who sells on eBay to a New York resident will have to charge and pay sales tax if there is only one New York resident who has a link to eBay on their web site.