AvaTax sends real-time sales tax calculations to BigCommerce using geolocation to map multiple rates and rules to each transaction. Once you activate AvaTax within BigCommerce and set up your company profile, you can configure the setup to fit your unique business requirements for things like:

• Tax calculation settings for various tax types
• Exemption settings if you have exempt customers
• Product taxability settings for what you sell

Avalara provides a comprehensive Avalara University course designed specifically for BigCommerce customers to quickly and efficiently set up AvaTax. The implementation process takes you through every step to ensure AvaTax works seamlessly with your business. Merchants will typically:

• Assign and apply tax schedules 
• Set up taxability information
• Set up tax exemptions rules
• Configure more advanced rules

You need to collect sales tax in states where you have triggered nexus. Nexus is a connection between a state and business when annual sales revenue and/or transaction quantity reach a threshold set by the state that requires you to register for sales tax. AvaTax can help you track nexus and inform you when you’ve reached a threshold.

Yes. AvaTax can manage sales tax compliance across multiple companies or storefronts, and even manage the process across complex corporate structures (e.g., parent or subsidiary companies). There’s no limit or extra cost for using AvaTax in multiple companies. However, AvaTax requires users to have only one company file open at a time.

Avalara AvaTax is an advanced solution that uses geolocation and address verification to calculate sales tax down to a specific address, accounting for multiple tax jurisdictions in a single ZIP code, complex tax tiers, and more. It can also calculate tax on international transactions. Avalara offers additional solutions to prepare and file your returns and easily manage exemption certificates in the cloud, which all integrate seamlessly with AvaTax.