CPA_Practice_Advisor_November_2020 - 12

REVIEW: SALES & USE TAX SYSTEMS

By Mary Girsch-Bock

The Right Tech Can Simplify Sales Tax

need to worry about sales tax for the state in which your
business operates, but if you sell anything online, you need
a way to manage sales tax collection in any location from
which your customer may be buying.

AVALARA RETURNS FOR
SMALL BUSINESS
CFS TAX SOFTWARE
EFILESALESTAX

X

X

*X
**X

X

■ Avalara Returns for Small Business
(formerly TrustFile)
■ CFS Tax Software TaxTools
■ eFileSalesTax.com

AUTOMATED SALES TAX
COMPLIANCE
■
■
■
■

X

Avalara AvaTax
CCH SureTax Calc
TaxJar
Vertex Cloud Indirect Tax

Repo
Opti rting
ons

d
F orm
Supp s
orte

Da t a
Opti Output
ons

Acco
Integunting
ra t io
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Da t a
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Man ase
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AFTER-THE-FACT

AFTER-THE-FACT SALES
TAX COMPLIANCE

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than 10,000 tax jurisdictions, many of
which offer some sort of tax holiday
at various times of the year, so those
tax-free periods have to be adhered to
as well.
That's why sales and use tax
software can be a lifesaver, or at least
a business saver. These applications
are designed to calculate the correct
amount of sales tax that needs to be
collected from your customers for
every transaction, no matter where
the transaction is taxable. Sales and

Mult
i
Suppple Stat
or t e es
d

This means that anywhere that
you have sales tax nexus, you'll need
to calculate and collect sales tax from
your customers. Currently, 45 states
and the District of Columbia collect
sales tax with more than 35 states
also collecting local taxes. While you
can certainly try to do this manually,
you'll save countless hours if you use
software to calculate the appropriate
sales tax amounts for your customers
in multiple states. To further complicate the life of a retailer, there are more

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only sell from a single brick and mortar location, you only

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amount of sales tax from your customers. Of course, if you

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have a method in place to track and collect the appropriate

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vary from state to state. Which is why it's vital that you

A separate chart for each of the
categories is included with these
reviews, where you can see at a glance
the availability of a variety of features
including:
■ Is the sales tax database automatically
updated by the vendor?
■ Does the product integrate with
accounting applications?
■ Does the product handle sales tax
filing for multiple businesses?
■ What kind of reporting options are
available?
■ Does the product offer electronic filing
or remittance options?
■ Does the product offer automated
address verification?
■ Is sales tax exemption certificate
management offered?
Whether you're a retailer looking
for a more efficient way to manage
sales and use tax or an accountant
who needs to streamline the sales tax
process for your clients, the sales and
use tax reviews in this issue can help
you get started.

Help

know that it's an understatement to say that sales tax rules

Use Tax software also assists with tax
reporting and remittance.
Today, sales and use tax automation is a necessity for any retailer of
any size. It doesn't matter if you're selling from a single location in Chicago, or
have locations across the U.S., you need
something that will properly collect
and remit sales tax for your business.
In this issue of CPA Practice Advisor, we reviewed 7 products, with all
products offering a variety of features
and functionality. To make it a bit
easier, we divided the products into
two categories: Basic and Automated.

Mult
i
Man -Compan
agem y
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IF YOU'VE BEEN in business for any length of time, you

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4
4.25

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*WITH ADD-ON MODULE

12

NOVEMBER 2020 ■

www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com

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Help

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Cons
Tax umer Us
Repo e
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VAT

AVALARA AVATAX
CCH SURETAX CALC
VERTEX CLOUD
TAXJAR

Ad d r
Ve r i e s s
ficat
ion

AUTOMATED

Au t o
m
P ay m a t e d F i
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ption
s
Tax
Rule
s
& Da
t aba
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Sale
s Ta
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Man p t ion
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Geol
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Capa ion
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*CALIFORNIA & NEW YORK ONLY
**CALIFORNIA, COLORADO, FLORIDA AND ILLINOIS ONLY

5
4.75
4.5
5
http://www.eFileSalesTax.com http://www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com
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