Avalara partners with Xero to make automated sales tax solution

Tax compliance solutions provider Avalara and cloud-based accounting solution provider Xero announced that they are teaming up to create a new automated sales tax solution.

The two will work together to build an integration solution that automates the sales tax compliance from within the Xero platform. It will use Avalara’s tax content database and sales tax calculation engines, as well as Xero’s ability to apply correct tax treatments to invoices and simple, state-based reporting.

“We know people don’t start their small business to be buried in tricky admin. Our new partnership with the experts at Avalara, we can automate compliance work and give small businesses and their advisors a simple, efficient, and beautiful experience to meet their tax obligations so they can focus on growing their business,” said Anna Curzon, chief product officer at Xero, in a statement.

Sanjay Parthasarathy, Avalara’s chief product officer, said in a statement that the decision was motivated by a desire to utilize each company’s particular strengths to create a combined product that would be greater than the sum of its parts.

“By partnering with Xero, we are able to inject Avalara’s tax compliance expertise and technology directly into a leading global accounting platform for a convenient way for businesses to manage sales tax. This partnership will also support accountants by automating the management of changing tax rates and rules, and providing validated data to process returns for clients,” he said.

The partnership was announced at Xerocon New Orleans, where Avalara and Xero provided attendees the first opportunity to sign up for closed-beta trials, which will be available next year to a limited number of users.