What if your sales tax puzzle solved itself? Avalara’s automation tackles the complexity while you grow your business.
Did you know that uncut bagels in New York are tax exempt but that a sliced bagel is subject to an 8-cent sales tax? That in New Mexico, residents over 100 are exempt from sales taxes? That in some areas of Illinois, SweeTARTS are subject to a 5% candy tax, while Kit Kats are not?
Let’s face it: sales tax is a puzzling mess. Yet business leaders like you are expected to process 100% accurate sales and use taxes on every transaction, every day — or else.
Stressed out? Don’t be. Avalara provides a comprehensive collection of tax tools and services designed to make taxation easy for you.
What Is Avalara?
Simply put, they are the sales tax authorities for the world. Their core solutions seamlessly integrate with your ERP and work in the background to help you collect, track, file, and remit your sales taxes for every transaction, everywhere.
Avalara’s core offerings include:
- AvaTax – A cloud-based solution that automatically calculates the correct sales or use tax rate, including VAT, GST, and specialized taxes like excise, for every item you sell across 190 countries. It can also calculate cross-border duties.
- Avalara Returns and VAT Returns – Filing one return a month may take you 15 minutes. Filing 10 returns will take 10x that time, so 2.5 hours. Filing 100 returns will take 100x that time, so 25 hours – which is why Avalara preps and files your returns for you. For U.S. taxes, they also handle your remittances.
- E-invoicing and Live Reporting – If you sell globally, you also face compliance mandates on your e-invoicing and live reporting. Avalara automates compliance for you, including for Peppol.
- Exemption Certificate Management – Automates the collection, storage, and validation of exemption certificates, as well as the tracking of expiration dates and requests for new certificates.
How Avalara Helps You Solve Additional Sales Tax Puzzles
Of course, you can only collect, file, and remit the taxes you know you owe. What about the taxes you don’t know about yet? When it comes to sales tax, each city / county / province / state / national government expects you to put together the whole puzzle of where you’ve triggered physical or economic nexus, but those same governments do not make it easy for you to find up-to-date tax information or clear answers. On anything. Ever.
Whether your business or entity is just getting started or you secretly dread that you’ve overlooked some important tax laws that have been racking up penalties, Avalara can help. They provide:
- License guidance, filing, and management – They will research and determine all the places you must file for taxes, register your business license in each place, and store all your licenses in one convenient database for you. They can also help with maintenance and renewals.
- State tax registration – They will prepare your required sales tax forms and paperwork, file them, and process the registration fees for you in each place where you are required to file.
- Tax research – They maintain an up-to-date, easy-to-use tax database that provides fast, clear, yes/no answers to your pressing tax questions in every state. They also give you the option to dive deeper into each answer if you really want to.
- Tax code and category classifications – Many of the wacky tax rules we mentioned in the first paragraph of this piece are related to tax category and code classifications. Avalara uses AI and automation to accurately classify each of your items so you can be confident you’re collecting the correct taxes in every jurisdiction you sell in – locally, nationally, and internationally.
…And Everything Else Related to Taxes
There is more to taxes than sales taxes, which is why Avalara also helps you avoid other tax headaches, such as:
- 1099, W-9, W-2, and 1095 handling – They will handle the process for you, including filing and on-time delivery of forms.
- Property taxes – Using a combination of auto data extraction, return prep, and reminders, Avalara helps you stay on top of your tax bills, due dates, documents, forms, and appeals so that nothing slips through the cracks.
Looking for Tax Solutions for Purchasers?
Avalara is not just for sellers; it also helps purchasers. Whether you need to manage vendor exemption certificates, ensure that you are paying use tax correctly – or simply want to double-check that your vendors aren’t overcharging you for taxes, Avalara has got you covered.
Purchasers can also use many of the offerings we listed for sellers, such as License Guidance, E-invoicing and Live Reporting, Code and Category Classifications, 1099 Management, and Property Tax tools, plus a whole lot more.
Get End-to-End Tax Help
In addition to the products and services we have already mentioned, Avalara also offers professional tax services with experts who will help you solve tricky tax puzzles. Want more? They also have a service that identifies all your nexus obligations for you, so you can check that off your list. Best of all, you should know that 25 states will offset your sales tax solution costs, and Avalara can help you determine if you are eligible for those programs.
So, don’t stress about puzzling tax concerns. Relax. Take a coffee break and focus on growing your business instead of tracking your tax obligations. But know that, if you are in Colorado, the lid on your disposable coffee cup will trigger an additional 2.9% tax. So maybe skip the lid.
Learn More About Avalara
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.