A Press Release From - Barnett Marketing Communications

For Immediate Release              For More Information, Contact: Ned Barnett 

Avalara Extends its Sales Tax Service With Automated Tax Returns

With SuperForm Alliance, AvaTax ST Will Be Most Complete On-Demand Sales Tax Solution Available

Bainbridge Island, Washington – March 1, 2005:   AvaTax ST, the first on-demand sales and use tax web service provider to serve the small and medium business market with integrated ERP solutions, today announced a marketing and technology partnership with STF Services Corporation, the creator of SuperForm Products.  By licensing SuperForm from STF, AvaTax ST – which automatically calculates and reports sales tax – will extend its functionality to include a forms utility that will identify, populate and generate completed tax returns.

“We are pleased to join up with STF to strengthen Avalara’s sales tax offering,” said Rory Rawlings, Avalara’s President and Founder.  “By combining STF’s SuperForm Products with Avalara’s AvaTax ST, the functional spectrum of our sales tax automation service will become unparalleled in its breadth and simplicity.” 

Currently, AvaTax ST has four functional components: customer address validation – a factor which determines location to ZIP +4, necessary for accurate jurisdiction research; tax jurisdiction research to associate the exact customer location with all applicable jurisdictions and rates; sales and use tax calculation with consideration of each invoice line item, product taxabilities, customer exceptions, minimum and maximum-taxes, tax-holidays, split-taxes and other peculiarities; and secure, complete reporting for tax filing and audit purposes. 

With the completion of our alliance with STF and the roll-out of Avalara’s upgraded offering in early Q2, AvaTax ST will encompass a fifth dynamic capability: the creation of automated returns.  This feature includes sophisticated selection of required forms, pre-population of tax data for a specific filing period, and intelligent calculations within the form – all to result in a completed return with a minimum of time and effort.  A revision/approval process is included, permitting AvaTax ST to seamlessly maintain records of any adjustments, a feature useful for auditing purposes. 

“With this new AvaTax ST capability, the only manual process the user will still have to face is actually printing out and submitting the returns to taxing authorities,” noted Rawlings.

“SuperForm Products offers a complete set of forms reflecting the over 8,000 taxing authorities in North America and covering over 45,000 cities across the country,” explained Ranjit Mulgoankar, Avalara’s VP Product Management and Business Development.  “All SuperForm returns are government approved and highly functional: calculations are made automatically within the form to improve user efficiency and reduce error; and each one carries a barcode with essential information that can be quickly scanned.  Integrating this feature into AvaTax ST offers our users a dramatic increase in automated functionality.”

“We are excited to be partnering with Avalara in creating a fresh new approach to handling sales tax in the small- and medium-sized firm market.  STF’s interactive forms technology and years of experience in dealing with the myriad taxing jurisdictions will streamline the sales tax compliance burden with Avalara’s system and help deliver value to customers,” remarked Charlie Ter Bush, STF’s president

“AvaTax ST is an on-demand web service solution that integrates into a variety of the most popular SMB accounting packages,” Mulgoankar explained.  “When Avalara releases our expanded service capability AvaTax ST during the second quarter of 2005, all new and existing clients will have immediate access to this new feature. As a result, automated returns will become available upon release to Avalara clients using Microsoft’s Great Plains, Best Software’s ACCPAC Advantage Series™, MAS 90® and MAS 200®, and Scala.  Other major product integrations will be released throughout 2005.”

About AvaTax ST
AvaTax ST is an “on demand” web service that instantly and accurately calculates sales tax for clients in any one of the more than 8,000 taxing jurisdictions in the U.S.  AvaTax ST is designed to deliver best practice solutions in sales and use tax compliance, as well as improved internal controls – and simply the best end-user experience.  It is the fastest, easiest, most accurate and affordable way to calculate and report sales and use tax.

AvaTax ST currently integrates with more third party financial packages than any other sales and use tax solution.  Products include AvaTax ST for Best Software’s ACCPAC Advantage Series, MAS 90 and MAS 200, Microsoft’s Great Plains, Scala, and numerous others.  AvaTax ST also integrates easily with e-commerce solutions and custom-built solutions.  Available directly or through resellers internationally, AvaTax ST is priced on a scalable fee structure, to accommodate any size business.  AvaTax ST entered the market in Q3 of 2004, and is already in use by more than 120 partners and end-users.

About Avalara
Headquartered on Bainbridge Island, Washington, Avalara is changing the sales and use tax landscape by delivering innovative and affordable web-service solutions geared to small and medium-sized businesses. Led by a team of industry experts in sales and use tax, security and information technology, Avalara's goal is to provide the easiest, most accurate and affordable way for any sized company to address all statutory sales and use tax requirements.  Additional news and information is available at www.avalara.com.

About STF
Established in 1985, STF Services Corporation is the foremost provider of electronic forms in the tax industry.  STF’s SuperForm brand is relied upon by thousands of professionals around the world who practice in the fields of tax, pensions, human resources, labor, business and environmental law.  Since 2001, STF has been a subsidiary of BNA, Inc., the foremost publisher of print and electronic news, analysis, and reference products for professionals in business and government.
For more information about STF, visit our website at www.stf.com, or call 800-541-7197.
For more information about Avalara, contact Ned Barnett at ned@barnettmarcom.com; 720-696-1200