DENVER—
Online marketing companies say a bill that will put a new state sales tax on online retailers will cost jobs in Colorado and possibly force some businesses here to shut down.That warning after the Colorado House approved HB - 1193 and sent it over to the Senate.
Lawmakers are desperately trying to find new revenue and they say this new sales tax on internet retailers will help level the playing field for local retailers.
But people in the internet marketing business, who have contracts with those big online retailers say it will destroy an entire industry here in Colorado.
Adperio is a 15 year old Denver based internet marketing company with 55 employees, planning to hire 15 more people this year, generating 35 million dollars a year in revenue.
They say if Colorado passes a law putting a local sales tax on big internet companies like Amazon, who have affiliates in Colorado, they'll just pull out marketing operations here.
"Hundreds of them will cancel their relationships with us and move it to other businesses in other states," said Adperio employee Nicky Hayes, "So it definitely compromises my job as well as the business as a whole. "
That's already happened in the two states who passed similar laws and Adperio has some of the biggest names in the internet sales business.
"It's going to kill jobs, there will be no incremental revenue the bill is flawed from the get go and unfortunately businesses like ours and our industry are going to suffer we anticipate over four thousand jobs," said Adperio CEO David Asseoff, "Affiliates, many of them small moms and pops are going to lose their business. "
Many of those internet retailers have already notified them of their intent to pullout.
While Colorado lawmakers say they are trying to help local businesses who already pay state sales tax, and to generate more revenue for the cash-strapped state budget Adperio says the law will backfire.
"It has not generated incremental revenue for Rhode Island or North Carolina one of the other states that has passed this, the incremental revenue that it intended to drive is not going to happen jobs will be lost and there'll be no gain for the state," said Asseoff.
Lawmakers say they hope to generate 4.6 million dollars a year but in reality those in the business say it will cause far bigger losses here and will likely end up being challenged in court.
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