Published by Avalara
13.12.21
Let’s face it, running an ecommerce business isn’t easy, so why burden yourself with something so complex as tax compliance when it can be solved with software in the cloud?
In this article, automated tax solutions provider, Avalara, discusses the benefits of automation and why if you’re a growing business, it can help ensure you’re always compliant no matter where in the world you sell your products.
The challenge
Tax compliance is a challenge for many businesses and one that needs careful attention. Historically, companies have had to have a sizable tax team to manage their compliance obligations with manual, burdensome processes that cost time and money that could be better spent elsewhere.
The compliance process also becomes significantly more complex when trading cross-border into new regions and presents a real challenge to any company with global growth plans. In this golden age of borderless ecommerce, it’s never been easier to obtain new customers from new regions and therefore new indirect tax obligations.
Any company that is selling internationally across borders should expect to see an increase in their indirect tax obligations because of certain triggers such as local legislation, reaching sales thresholds or the presence of stock, for example. Identifying and meeting these obligations is a challenge – and it’s one that tends to increase in line with company growth.
Along with increased obligations, companies need to meet government requirements, which are becoming increasingly complex and vast, such as rates, product taxability rules, and tax laws, which are constantly in flux. Without automation, any business will probably take on unnecessary risks.
The benefits of automation
Like with many other challenges, companies are turning to automation to streamline their compliance processes, save time, save money and mitigate the risk of non-compliance so that they can focus on their day-to-day growth plans. Companies are automating critical parts of their operations with ERPs, ecommerce platforms, and other business applications, therefore tax should be no different. Automation enables companies to have a scalable and accurate process and become compliant from the outset, and therefore scale with confidence.
Automated tax solutions like Avalara’s AvaTax solution integrate into the most widely used solutions, including Shopify Plus or offer an open API, which allows you to manage your tax compliance within a single dashboard.
Customer experience
It’s also important to factor in the customer experience when trading cross border. Customers will expect to know the fully landed cost, which needs to include not just shipping and local tax, but any relevant customs duties and import tax. Failure to present these at checkout can result in unexpected taxes being presented to the customer, rejected parcels and customs delays. Avalara’s Cross Border solution is designed to help retailers calculate duties and taxes in order to ensure customer satisfaction. This is especially important to get right post-Brexit and one challenge, if met, can ensure customer satisfaction and retention.
Want to hear more?
Avalara can help your business, big or small, find the right cloud-based solution or services to ensure continuous compliance, no matter where you do business. Their team of indirect tax specialists are happy to provide you with an evaluation call to discuss your business and how best you can manage your indirect tax compliance.
If you’d like to hear more about integrating Avalara onto your Shopify Plus store or need further advice on tax compliance, please contact our team of ecommerce experts today.
About Avalara?
Avalara helps businesses of all sizes get tax compliance right through the delivery of a range of tax services and cloud-based solutions. Avalara’s mission is to simplify tax compliance for their customers who are selling internationally so that they can focus on growing their business globally, not tax. Headquartered in Seattle, USA, Avalara has offices across the globe in the UK, India and Brazil to serve their +30,000 customers.
