Avalara Releases New Automated Consumer Use Tax Solution

Avalara announced it will release its newest automated consumer use tax management solution, AvaTax Consumer Use at Microsoft Dynamics Convergence in New Orleans today. Avalara provides sales tax and compliance automation services in the cloud for businesses.

Attendees at the Microsoft Dynamics event will be among the first to experience AvaTax Consumer Use’s features. The service will be available for Dynamics AX, GP and NAV. While Avalara previously offered a consumer use tax solution for larger businesses, AvaTax Consumer Use is tailored for small and medium-sized businesses, although it is suitable for companies of all sizes. The solution integrates seamlessly with users’ accounting systems, using Avalara’s tax decision engine.

“Our aim is to be the clear leader in every market we enter,” said Avalara Founder and CEO Scott McFarlane. “We’re building a compliance cloud aimed at combining the best available content with industry-leading technology to deliver the best sales, use and value added tax calculation and filing solutions to business of all sizes. AvaTax Consumer Use will play a starring role in that equation.”

AvaTax Consumer Use will integrate with almost any ERP application and users can schedule tax calculations in accordance with their company’s filing schedule. The tax data is then available in AvaTax Returns and AvaTax Calc, making it easy for users to complete the entire reporting and filing process. The solution pulls all the data and invoices for vendors, allowing users to look at an organized batch of invoices. Another feature includes the ability to check the accuracy of any consumer use tax charged to make sure the user was taxed at the correct rate.

Consumer use tax management continues to be a major obstacle for businesses. Very few accounting software and ERP solutions completely support the process and it can be both complicated and time-consuming to manage it manually. Mismanagement or failure to do so can result in audits and penalties for many businesses.

“Over the course of my career, I have heard customers asking for a consumer use solution time and time again and AvaTax Consumer Use fits in well with users of ERP platforms, giving them what they need,” said Tim Teeter, Director of Product Marketing, Avalara. “It really is time consuming and tricky to close the books every month – looking at every invoice, determining whether tax was paid and reporting to the various states.”

The release of AvaTax Consumer Use is the latest in Avalara’s efforts to provide its customers with quality sales tax content and solutions. The company recently purchased Tax Technology Services, provider of cloud-hosted sales tax exemption certificate management solutions and UPC Matrix Master, a product taxability database.

“Avalara pioneered the service-based platform for sales tax automation and we’ve spent the last eight years perfecting the fastest, easiest, most accurate and affordable way to manage indirect taxes,” said McFarlane. We’re establishing a new standard for consumer use tax management, while raising the bar for the entire compliance and automation industry in the coming years.”