Step 1. California imposes a Use Tax collection duty on retailers with an affiliate or corporate nexus to California.
Step 2. Amazon immediately abandons its California-based affiliates.
Step 3. Amazon seeks a referendum on the New Sales and Use Tax law.
Step 4. Rinse and Repeat.
So, AB 155, which passed both the Assembly and Senate last Friday, could take California back to Step 1. The bill is headed to engrossing and enrolling, and we should learn within a week whether Governor Brown will sign the bill.
While the bill offers Amazon a one-year reprieve, I am sure that we have not heard the last of it. In the next few months, we will see Amazon either re-engage its California affiliates or continue to pare down its nexus with the State of California. The path it pursues will inform us whether Amazon will be collecting sales and use taxes in California next year.
