Avalara Automates Tax Compliance for E-Cigarette Excise Taxes

Las Vegas, NV – October 12, 2015 — Avalara, Inc., a leading provider of cloud-based software delivering compliance solutions related to sales tax, VAT and other transactional taxes, today announced the launch of Avalara Returns Excise for Tobacco during the 2015 NACS Show, the premier industry event for convenience and fuel retailers from around the world, being held this week at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Avalara’s new compliance solution calculates taxes and generates signature-ready forms for e-cigarette excise taxes. Avalara now provides compliance support for the states of Louisiana, North Carolina and Minnesota – the three states currently taxing e-cigarettes as tobacco products – and plans to expand its support as other states introduce taxes on e-cigarette and vape wholesalers and retailers in their jurisdictions.

“As the vape industry continues to rapidly expand, more and more e-cigarette and vapor retailers and wholesalers are grappling with filing their first tobacco tax returns,” said Matt Tormollen, EVP & GM of Avalara’s Excise Tax Division. “And as more states follow the example set by Louisiana, North Carolina and Minnesota, the tax compliance challenge will only snowball. With today’s announcement, we’re very pleased to offer an easy-to-use, cloud-based compliance automation solution that leverages the deep expertise from our fuel excise tax products, ensuring tax compliance and lower filing costs for the emerging e-cigarette and vapor industry.”

Avalara Returns Excise for Tobacco integrates directly with back-office systems, avoiding the need for time-consuming and error-prone spreadsheets typically used in tax preparations. After normalizing and validating transaction data, schedules are built, taxes are calculated, and signature-ready returns are prepared automatically, thus improving productivity and reducing audit liability. Tax rules, rates, and forms are built-in, and updates are handled by Avalara, eliminating the need to track tax changes and ensuring ongoing tax compliance. Built-in workflow support automates approval processes to provide status visibility and ensure filing deadlines are met.

Avalara pioneered a web-based platform for sales tax automation more than a decade ago and now provides an end-to-end suite of transactional tax compliance services for businesses of all sizes. Today its SaaS solution integrates into numerous business systems and billing platforms, including ERP systems, accounting packages, ecommerce shopping carts, Point of Sale systems, mobile payment platforms, and others. Over the years, fuel industry tax professionals and taxing agencies alike have come to trust Avalara to determine, file, collect, and process excise taxes reliably and accurately. Avalara Returns Excise for Tobacco joins Avalara Returns Enterprise and Avalara Returns Excise Pro in providing automated compliance solutions to simplify excise tax filing.