Starting April 1st, Amazon will be collecting sales tax. Yes, if you live in a state that enforces sales tax, that will appear in your Amazon checkout. You can learn more about the change in the news brief below.
You may have missed this Amazon change amidst all the news around Internet governance this week. The House of Representatives voted to repeal an FCC regulation approved last year on Internet privacy. The Senate had voted the same last week. With an official sign-off from the President, ISPs will be able to use your personal data without your permission. Here at FE International, we respect your privacy. The industry we are involved in requires strict confidentiality and we will maintain this policy to continue facilitating safe, secure and successful deal making.
In regards to April events, FE will be sponsoring MicroConf in Vegas on the 9th to 12th. Let us know if you’re in Vegas or attending MicroConf, as we are hosting a happy hour Monday night (April 10th). Details are here. The following week, founder Thomas Smale will be speaking at two events. He will first head to Brighton to speak at the LTVConf on the 19th and then to Atlanta to speak at a private digital investor event. Reply to this email if you’re in those areas!
Read below to learn more about Amazon’s sales tax, online privacy protection and SaaStr updates.
Deal Highlights
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- Diversified revenues
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- High net margins of over 95%
- Long visitor sessions, averaging 5.2 min/session
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Yearly net profit: $27,800
Asking price: $78,000
Sold:
Display Advertising – Employment Resource – $1K net/mo
In the News…
Amazon Sales Tax
Beginning on April 1st, Amazon will be collecting sales taxes from all the 45 states that have a sales tax. Since the start of this year, Amazon has already kept track of all states where sales taxes are collected, except for Alaska, Delaware, Oregon, Montana, and New Hampshire, where there are no sales levies.
States are not allowed to require retailers to collect taxes unless the retailers had a brick and mortar store in the same location as the customer. Because Amazon has built warehouses and facilities across the nation in multiple locations, it falls under this rule.
As a consumer, if you are making a purchase online from a retailer who does not have a brick-and-mortar location in your state, it is your responsibility to report a use tax. Because it is left in the hands of taxpayers, the rule isn’t strictly enforced. As a solution, the Streamlined Sales Tax Agreement, allows retailers to voluntarily collect taxes, which is what Amazon is choosing to now implement.
No More Internet Privacy Protection
This Tuesday, Congress voted to remove any landmark online privacy protection. Internet service providers like Verizon, AT&T and Comcast have the freedom to use information that it gathers from their customers. Information such as browsing habits, app usage history, location data and Social Security numbers. Internet providers were also required to protect against any hackers who could access this information.
From a consumer perspective, what you do online is potentially up for grabs to advertisers, businesses, Google and Facebook. The latter two companies arguably already monitor behavior and collect data, not approved by users. Last year, these protections were approved to be implemented at the end of this year. However, people against the repeal argue that personal and financial data could be sold and used for very specific targeted ads. This deregulation is another move towards the fear that the FCC will also dismiss net neutrality rules, where ISPs shouldn’t discriminate against content. People who support the repeal believe that this will encourage more innovation within the Internet industry because information would be helpful to provide more targeted and relevant ads to consumers.
If you support the deregulation, this is obviously good news for you, ISPs and businesses looking to gain more information on consumers. If you’re worried about your privacy being invaded, there are many methods to protect yourself. You can check out some methods here.
SaaStr Expands to NYC
The SaaStr Community opens in New York City. Michael Cardamone of Box and Acceleprise has joined the SaaStr Fund as a Venture Partner in New York. This is an important move for SaaStr to transplant to the east coast.
As Cardamone explains, at SaaStr Annual this past February, hundreds of attendees were New Yorkers. In 2016, SaaS was the most invested sector in NYC. SaaStr will be able to tap into the large enterprise customers and talent that is available in New York. The diversity that is present in NYC has the potential to push the growth of number of SaaS companies that are born there.
Cardamone says “the demand from the SaaStr community is there.” SaaStr had held a social event back in 2014 and the event exceeded expectations. It will be interesting to see how SaaStr taps into the NYC SaaS ecosystem and expand opportunity.