Sales tax is an unavoidable administrative hassle for any retailer that sells taxable products online or at a brick-and-mortar location. It is also extremely complicated, and there are a lot of places for it to go wrong. However, smart sales tax software can automate this tedious process, saving you time and eliminating the risk of sales taxation errors.
Businesses are expected to keep track of state and local area sales tax rates, ensure that you’re collecting the right amount of sales tax on the right products, and know when your state’s filing due dates are.
For example, when you’re actively shipping items to different regions, you’re continually contending with individual tax rules and varying retail sales tax holidays. Or, during back-to-school season, one item on the receipt may be tax exempt while another is not – and you’re legally required to know and abide by the rules. This is a major challenge for retailers, particularly because the rules change often and differ from state to state.
It’s easy to see why calculating sales tax is a massive undertaking for retailers of all sizes. In the past, all POS systems had a time-consuming, manual process for setting up retail sales tax rules – but new systems are changing the tax game for retailers. By automatically applying the relevant tax rules at checkout in real-time, sales tax software like Avalara’s AvaTax integration is making sales tax calculation effortless.
These software integrations help your retail chain:
- Save time and money, allowing you to “set and forget” complex sales tax rules,
- Reduce your risk of using incorrect tax codes,
- Automate compliance regulations, so you’re in the clear.
How does sales tax automation work?
AvaTax works in real-time during the processing of an online sale and determining the sales tax total.
Before calculating the total, your POS connects via the cloud to AvaTax’s software, communicating all the purchase information including key receipt items and the shipping location. Then, AvaTax responds in milliseconds with the correct retail sales tax calculations, applied automatically at checkout.
This integration provides the necessary information in record time, helping retailers easily calculate retail sales tax based on:
- Store location
- Merchandise category
- Dollar threshold
- Freight fee amount
- Alteration service fee
- Customer’s tax status
- Qualifying merchandise
Runit + AvaTax?
Because of the overwhelming benefits for retailers using sales tax automation, Runit is partnering with Avalara to offer AvaTax to its customers, free of charge. We are one of the only systems in our price point and category with this exciting feature.
If you’re interested in trying AvaTax and experiencing the benefits of retail sales tax automation for yourself, learn more about upgrading here.
