Avalara AvaTax vs Tax Series

Avalara AvaTax calculates tax in real time for sales and purchasing workflows. It covers sales tax, consumer use tax, VAT, communications tax, occupancy and lodging tax, and excise tax, and supports automated return filing and tax registration. Address validation uses geospatial technology to match transactions to tax regions rather than relying on ZIP codes. AvaTax connects with ecommerce, ERP, accounting, sales, and purchasing systems, and its REST API supports calculation, document modification, and address validation. Product taxability codes, AI-assisted item classification, custom rules, exemption certificate management, and jurisdiction-specific tax research support tax decisions. Reporting includes dashboards, natural-language search, and audit-ready trails. The service is available through web and API, with integrations including Shopify, NetSuite, QuickBooks, SAP, and Salesforce. Core Compliance costs $79 per month; Core Compliance + SST Services costs $69 per month for qualifying sellers. Qualified sellers may receive state-funded services in up to 25 states. Pricing also varies by plan and transaction volume.

Tax Series is web-native corporate tax software for corporate income tax processes, with shared data used across tax work. Its modules cover worldwide provision reporting under ASC 740, corporate tax compliance, and BEPS reporting. Provision supports calculations under U.S. GAAP or IFRS. Compliance automates corporate tax calculations and population of forms including 5471, 8865, and 8858; BEPS supports Country-by-Country reporting and master and local files. Data Collector assigns packages to preparers, reviewers, and approvers and provides real-time project monitoring. Web Services supports two-way data transfer with client systems, data validation, and calculation triggers. A single database also supports planning, audit support, legal entity maintenance, tax calendar, and document management. The vendor describes the product as well suited to medium and large multinational corporate clients, and it supports U.S. corporate taxpayers and multinational corporations. Pricing is on request. Prospective clients can use it for a full tax cycle at no cost through a proof of concept, typically a 2–10 week process. After subscription termination, clients receive three months of read-only access to retrieve data.