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Imagine a world where sales tax calculations, reporting, and filing are completed in minutes. Tax automation brings this efficiency to your business, saving you valuable time.

 

We are all familiar with the phrase, “There are only two certainties in life: death and taxes.”

Well, within the certainty of taxes, there seems to be another hidden truth: taxes suck, and nobody likes figuring them out. Even those amazing accountants who are like tax wizards do not actually enjoy doing taxes. They are not sitting around reading tax codes on the weekends for fun.

This is why sales tax automation exists.

In fact, taxes are complicated, deceptive, and frequently subject to change without warning. And, despite what the IRS seems to think, you did not start your company to spend your time and energy figuring out your business taxes. You deserve a better way.

With Avalara’s automation for sales tax, you can streamline your business’s sales tax calculations, reporting, and filing. Discover how Avalara’s automated sales tax platform can revolutionize your tax management tasks.

What Is Avalara, and What Can Tax Automation Do for Your Business?

Avalara is software that provides an automated, comprehensive, end-to-end tax compliance solution. By automating your taxes, you can stop wasting time entering data manually or uploading rate tables and tax information.

Avalara’s sales tax automation helps your business:

  • Identify tax obligations

Each state has very different rules regarding sales activities based on local and state legislation, and the rules change constantly. Each state also has its own registration process and portal. If you sell in multiple states, these issues can make it overwhelming for your accounting personnel to keep track of compliance requirements.

  • Calculate sales tax rates

State and local tax rates change frequently and require constant updates. In addition, your team must also research and solve tricky tax conundrums, such as whether food and fuel are taxable in various scenarios, because each state views taxable and tax-exempt items differently. Long story short: figuring out sales tax rates is a nightmare.

  • Manage exemption certificates

Managing exemption certificates is an often overlooked but extremely valuable part of tax compliance. There is much more to this process than simply collecting all those certificates from tax-exempt customers. You must also ensure that the document is in the correct form, legitimately applies to that specific sale, and is valid at the time of the sale. Once again, each state has its own rules and requirements. If your business has to deal with multiple exemption certificates, you know how quickly it can get complicated.

  • Prepare and file returns

All states require you to file regular returns. You must collect and compile all sales data from your sales and invoicing platforms and then prepare and submit each return according to that state’s specific filing protocol. If your team has to do this in multiple states every quarter or month, this process does not simply suck… it is nearly impossible.

  • Reconcile consumer use tax

Consumer use tax is tricky for many businesses because it is complicated to self-assess. There is a lot of gray area, and many companies must use their best guess to determine what they owe. We are not sure how you feel about guessing about your business’s future and tax obligations, but among successful business leaders, that is universally understood to be a bad approach.

Solve Tax Complexity by Leaning on AI That Really Works

All businesses can benefit from some level of automation for taxes. This is mainly because, as we said earlier, taxes suck.

How much your company could benefit depends on the different details of your specific business. Still, if you let AI handle the complexity of tax management, you will likely free up time and resources for more productive tasks.

Advancements in AI are everywhere these days, and there is no doubt that AI will change how we do things. However, since there are only two absolute certainties in life, we should take advantage of AI’s assistance in helping us out with one (tax automation) while we wait for future AI robots to inevitably take care of the other.

 

Discover How Avalara Can Benefit Your Business

 

Since 2003, PeopleSense has established itself as the definitive ERP and single source workforce management solution provider for businesses of all sizes throughout the U.S. and Canada, offering consulting for M2M® and Intuitive®, Sage HRMS, time and attendance solutions, Acumatica, and related services and products. PeopleSense provides clients with the peace of mind that comes from working with experienced consultants dedicated to customer service, who are affordably priced with no annual contracts. Reach out to get your business software questions answered.