If at any point in time you signed up to be an eBay affiliate (now called being an eBay “partner”), you may be wondering just exactly how and where to find your eBay commissions reports, to figure out how much commission eBay owes you. The search for where to find your eBay commissions can be frustrating; in fact it’s likely you ended up here for that very reason. We don’t blame you for being frustrated, it’s bad enough that eBay seems to constantly be changing how they deal with regular eBay sellers (who are of course raking in cash for eBay; in 2020 alone eBay had revenue of over $10billion (that’s “billion”, with a B). Here’s where to find that information.

If you were on the Internet in 2005 or 2006, you almost certainly also received spam for an herbal weight loss supplement called ‘Hoodia’, among others, and, if you received spam for Hoodia, then it’s also almost certain that Brian McDaid was behind it. In 2007, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) nabbed McDaid, a chiropractor from Thorndale, Pennsylvania, and charged him with false and deceptive business claims, and several violations of the Federal anti-spam law, CAN-SPAM.

California is the newest state to pass a law taxing sales at companies like Amazon when those sales are generated by a local (in this case California-based) affiliate or associate. And, not unexpectedly, about five minutes after California Governor Jerry Brown signed the legislation, California becames the newest state to have their affiliates dumped by Amazon. As we’ve pondered before, is it arrogance or simple ignorance that is leading these state legislatures to pass laws that, instead of bringing in new taxes, are depriving their state economic engines of taxable spending fuel? Instead of bringing more income into the state, by chasing away the affiliate programs, they are depriving their own residents of income – income which would come back to the local economy.

Colorado Amazon affiliates got the news this morning – Amazon has cancelled all Amazon associate (affiliate) accounts for all affilliates who are based in Colorado. The move came after the passage of Colorado law HB 10-1193, even though – as we read it – the affilliate language was removed from HB 10-1193 before it was passed!

With ever more states either passing or contemplating passing an Internet affiliate program sales tax, the two edges of that particular sword are being felt from coast-to-coast, as associates are being slashed from the lucrative affiliate programs of some of the largest Internet companies.

Following in New York’s footsteps, North Carolina is set to enact a similar Amazon Affiliate Tax, by which we mean that sales generated by someone in North Carolina via an affiliate program will be taxed (New York enacted an affiliate sales tax last year, over which New York was promptly sued).

A New York court has upheld New York’s affiliate sales tax law, dubbed “The Amazon Tax”, which requires that sales tax be collected for all sales originating in New York pursuant to a commission agreement (such as an affiliate program), regardless of the fact that the merchant is not actually in New York – such as Amazon.