State of Colorado Turns to Avalara for Online Sales Tax Rates and Rules

Avalara, Inc., a provider of cloud-based tax compliance automation for businesses of all sizes, has been chosen by the state of Colorado, and its Avalara Tax Research system will provide the state’s tax rates and rules to its more than 300 sales tax jurisdictions. With Avalara, Colorado delivers access to current tax rates and rules with easy-to-use online tools for residents and businesses selling goods and services in the state.

Because Colorado is a “home-rule” state for sales tax, local governments like cities and counties can administer and establish local sales tax rates and rules. The breadth of tax jurisdictions, rates, and rules can create challenges for businesses when determining sales tax rates and keeping up with changing rate and taxability rules.

To make tax information readily available to businesses, Colorado adopted Avalara Tax Research, which is a self-service tax management tool that leverages Geographic Information System (GIS) technology to provide sales and use tax rates and thoroughly researched and verified tax information.

Using Avalara Tax Research, Colorado benefits from having businesses apply more accurate sales tax calculations. Compatible with popular map-based apps like Google Maps, Avalara Tax Research compares addresses with tax boundary information, including statutory regulations and local ordinances, to reduce variability between different jurisdictional boundary levels and increase visibility into other applicable taxes and fees.

With Avalara Tax Research, Colorado jurisdictions can better communicate with one another on information related to boundaries, rates, rules, and traceability. Additionally, the unified, consistent portal for all tax information enables Colorado to easily keep track of ordinances, rules, taxability information, and proposed tax changes in an online library of historical information.

“As more governments embrace digital transformation to improve the taxpayer experience, leveraging technology that provides easy access to tax information is a key step to modernization,” said Jayme Fishman, EVP and GM of Indirect Tax at Avalara. “Using the best in artificial intelligence, automation, and a team of tax experts, Avalara’s best-in-class solutions and database for tax compliance rates and rules help increase the accuracy and timely validation of tax data for businesses and governments alike.”

Last month, Avalara announced its work with the state of Missouri to power the state’s publicly available online sales and use tax rate map.

Businesses can access the Colorado Sales Tax Lookup here.