October Partner of the Month – Avalara

October Partner of the Month – Avalara

Dealing with the new, complex eCommerce tax world…

Each month we feature a partner company that has produced great results for our clients. This month we’ll be discussing the leader in transactional Sales Tax Automation and Compliance, Avalara.

States are becoming more aggressive in defining requirements for eCommerce stores to collect sales and use taxes.  California and Pennsylvania have become the latest states to not only redefine which businesses must collect, but are increasing enforcement efforts to ensure compliance.

A Simple Solution to Complex Sales Tax Compliance Challenges

Avalara’s AvaTax provides a simple solution to a very complex problem, minimizing your compliance risk in an environment where state and local governments are looking for every dollar they can find, and are even hiring more auditors for enforcement efforts as they tighten and change sales tax rules.

The rules and regulations around who needs to collect sales tax, where they need to collect it, what products, services or customers are exempt, when to report and remit payment, and how to stay current are ever-changing. States expect you to be responsible to keep up with these   changes, no matter how you may have been notified.

Avalara’s services eliminate your need to take on the management of your sales tax systems.  The AvaTax Calc service includes:

  • Secure web-accessible dashboard for access to store data and settings in AvaTax system
  • Accurate sales tax calculation to roof-top with address validation and reports
  • Managing Updates to Rules and Regulations

Accurate and Correct Sales Tax Calculation

AvaTax uses geospatial technology to map and identify sales tax jurisdictional information, which provides a much more accurate result than zip code tables can provide.  Avalara is constantly updating their service with the latest jurisdictional and product taxability information, and is automatically up-to-date in the store shopping cart.  No more need to manage a server for sales tax, or download, update or manage monthly rate table changes. Avalara also includes as part of the service Address Validation, which ensures proper tax treatment specific to that address and a verified shipping address.

Rich Reporting Capabilities

AvaTax provides access to all of the store(s) sales tax information that has been run through it broken down by state, county, city, special taxes, product, and other different scenarios. You can even export that data to a spreadsheet or xml file.  This makes it simple to hand off the necessary information you need for filing your required tax returns or for use in an audit situation.

Webinar – October 25th

We will be doing a webinar to show you how to conquer your tax challenges with Avalara on October 25th.  Stay tuned for details.