Avalara’a Geospatial Automation Recertified by Florida DOR

AvaTax for Communications guarantees accuracy, protects CSPs if audited

Seattle, WA – July 28, 2016 – Avalara, a leading provider of tax compliance automation for business, today announced that Avalara AvaTax™ for Communications has been recertified by the Florida Department of Revenue for jurisdiction database accuracy. 

As a result, if a communications service provider (CSP) in Florida uses Avalara’s AvaTax Geo for Communications option to determine a jurisdiction, the accuracy of the jurisdiction is automatically certified and will not be questioned in an event of an audit, holding the CSPs harmless for monitoring and manually identifying customer locations.

“In communications taxation, accurate location identification is critical,” said David Campbell, VP, product management at Avalara.  “By automating tax calculation and tracking the complex and ever-changing rules and rates for more than 70,000 jurisdictions, Avalara saves time, reduces costs, and allows CSPs to focus on their business, not on tax obligations. We’re pleased the Florida Department of Revenue recognizes the ability of geospatial technology to accurately identify customer locations, which many consider to be the gold standard in communications.”

Locating correct jurisdictions at the national, state and local levels, all the way down to special tax districts, is a job that requires geo-coding.  Avalara’s AvaTax for Communications takes a customer’s account and translates the billing address into an exact latitude and longitude pair. This type of geospatial automation ensures better accuracy than other methods.

Avalara integrates within a CSP’s current billing or ERP system to quickly determine and calculate taxes and fees for traditional telecommunication services, as well as VoIP, internet services, cable and satellite TV, and other communications services. By adding a geo-coding component to tax automation software, CSPs can identify customer locations with confidence.

“Having a correct, scrubbed, and verified address is an essential component of calculating the correct taxes due and remitting them to the correct jurisdiction,” said Gino Capozzio, regulatory and tax compliance manager at FreedomVoice, a leader in virtual phone service. “Avalara’s automated geospatial service streamlines this process and provides a ‘safe harbor’ in Florida, offering an additional layer of confidence that we’re meeting our compliance obligations.”

For more information about Avalara AvaTax for Communications visit www.communications.avalara.com.

About Avalara

Avalara helps businesses of all sizes achieve compliance with transactional taxes, including VAT, sales and use, excise, communications, and other tax types by delivering comprehensive, automated, cloud-based solutions that are fast, accurate, and easy to use.  Avalara’s Compliance Cloud™ platform helps customers manage complicated and burdensome tax compliance obligations imposed by state, local, and other taxing authorities throughout the world.

Avalara offers hundreds of pre-built connectors into leading accounting, ERP, ecommerce and other business applications. The company processes millions of tax transactions for customers and users every day, files hundreds of thousands of tax compliance documents and tax returns per year, and manages millions of exemption certificates and other compliance related documents.

A privately held company, Avalara’ s venture capital investors include Sageview Capital, Battery Ventures, Warburg Pincus, Technology Crossover Ventures, Arthur Ventures, and other institutional and individual investors. Avalara’s headquarters are in Seattle, WA and it has offices across the U.S. and in Brighton and London, England; Brussels, Belgium; and Pune, India. More information at: www.avalara.com.

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