Aseptico streamlines sales tax

Founded in 1975, Aseptico manufactures and distributes high-quality dental equipment such as implant, endodontic, and portable dental systems to customers in 40 states and more than 125 countries.

Aseptico was registered, collecting, and remitting sales tax in five states. But the company suspected it had additional obligations due to its broad sales footprint and growing sales channels. Aseptico underwent a nexus study that confirmed it wasn’t collecting and remitting in some states where it had nexus.

“Our owner wanted to be compliant, but the volume and complexity were more than we could handle at our size,” says CFO Paul Jackson. “It was cheaper to automate, because we didn’t have the resources to handle it all.” 

Before implementing Avalara 1099 & W-9, Armanino used different systems and procedures across its 20+ offices. “We thought, ‘We can make this better,’” says Max Langfield, a member of the BOS team at Armanino who specializes in 1099 compliance. “[Standardizing the process] can free up our client delivery team, and they can provide a more white-glove service, while us in the back end are handling this relatively mundane administrative task.”

That significantly increased productivity and efficiency, cutting processing time in half — with automation, each filing takes just 15–30 minutes, according to Tyler DeWitt, a senior consultant at the firm. The change saved hundreds of hours nearly immediately, prompting Armanino to adopt the Avalara solution across the company. “Our automation would go for about 20 hours a day, but we were not working 20 hours,” Tyler says. “So while we’re off, we can still keep processing these 1099s.”

After completing their nexus study, Aseptico engaged Avalara Voluntary Compliance & VDA Services with the states where a past obligation existed. The voluntary disclosure agreement (VDA) process enabled Aseptico to manage past tax liabilities.

While working through the nexus study and VDAs, Paul discovered the Streamlined Sales Tax (SST) program and the benefits of working with an SST certified service provider (CSP), like Avalara.

“Some states we needed to add were SST member states,” Paul explains, “so it made sense to participate since we qualified for Volunteer status in those states.”

As the VDA process wrapped up, Paul prepared to register in the other non-SST states and the SST member states. Then the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the state in South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc., further supporting Paul’s decision to register in all SST states.

“By the time Wayfair hit, all we had to do was pull the trigger,” says Paul. “I emailed my Avalara account manager, and the SST team reached out. They asked a few questions, got me registered, set up filing calendars, and started doing returns. Because we were so prepared, the whole thing took less than a month.”