Life lessons. There’s the stuff you’d like to learn and there’s the stuff you have to learn, like web design, drywall hanging, and programming the DVR. We’re guessing sales tax falls into the latter category. Because, let’s face it, unless you’re a member of Mensa (or a masochist), sales tax is hard. And boring.
But now it doesn’t have to be. Avalara wrote the book on making sales tax easy. No seriously, we did. Okay, we had a little help on the “easy” part from the folks at For Dummies. Yes! That’s right; those massively popular bright yellow and black books that that offer useful instruction on, well, everything.
Odds are you’re familiar with For Dummies. Hard not to be, with more than 1,800 titles to choose from on everything from sushi to sewing to search engines and now (with Avalara’s help) sales tax.
The beauty of these DIY guides is that they take topics that are inherently overwhelming to most of us and condense them down into something digestible. Who doesn’t love that? Sales & Use Tax Compliance for Dummies is a 49-page powerhouse of plain speak on everything sales tax from understanding nexus (the obligation to collect sales tax based on sales activities) to product taxability to proving tax exemption to registration and returns filing. There’s helpful tips to avoid costly mistakes that could lead to an audit and practical reasons to consider automated tax software to make compliance easier to manage.
It’s a simple, straightforward look at a not-so-simple problem and a primer on why getting sales tax right is so important—and so hard to do on your own. There’s counsel for businesses of all types and sizes on how to make this process easier and business cases for tax-decisioning software that works right in the financial systems you already use in your business—from QuickBooks for smaller businesses to ERP or ecommerce systems for larger companies with more complex selling structures.
