The Weird and Wacky World of Sales Tax. Did you know that sales-tax in the US is handled unlike any other place on the planet? There are over 12,000 taxing jurisdictions covering millions of taxability rule combinations. This makes it very hard for businesses to ensure they're compliant to avoid the wrath of the law. This presentation will highlight the complexity, showcase some of the bizarre taxing cases and demonstrate how this difficult problem can be solved through a robust technology stack. Developers will learn how they can resolve their customers pain-points with a simple to use REST API.

1. Loke-Uei Tan (@lokeuei)
Sr. Manager, Developer Relations
The Wacky World of Sales
Tax

2. 12,000+
TAXING JURISDICTIONS

3. Arapahoe, CO
3.25%
Aurora CD
Only
7.0%
Arapahoe, Aurora
8.0%

5. SMALLEST STJ
EVA! 9.65%
Hoisington Subway CID +0.50%

6. SPECIAL BBQ
STJ Ozark Bar-Be-Que
CID - MISSOURI

7. TALKING ABOUT
FOOD…

8. 0.00%

9. 8.875%

10. twix
• Candy is taxable in most states.
• Twix has flour listed in the first three
ingredients therefore some states consider
it food and exempt it from tax
• Flour is wheat hence Agricultural subsidies
TAXABLE IN
MOST STATES

11. twix
• Candy is taxable in most states.
• Twix has flour listed in the first three
ingredients therefore some states consider
it food and exempt it from tax
• Flour is wheat hence Agricultural subsidies
0.00%

13. MORE CRAZY
TAXABILITY RULES

14. IN COLORADO…
0.00% TAXABLE!

15. Pool Cleaning &
Nebraska
• Outdoor cleaning is exempt
• Indoor is taxed
EXEMPT IN

16. Pool Cleaning &
Nebraska
• Outdoor cleaning is exempt
• Indoor is taxed
HOSED!

17. Flights in New York
• If you charter a plane with a pilot, sales tax is exempt
• If you don’t have a pilot, you have to pay
$$
CHARTERED FLIGHTS
IN NEW YORK…

18. Pennsylvania &
Formal wear
• Clothing is exempt except for Formal WearPENNSYLVANIA

19. UNLESS IT’S
FORMAL WEAR

20. 152,000,000 Mailing Addresses
12,000 Jurisdictional Rule-sets
10,000 Sales/Use/Rental Tax Rates
Millions Product/Service Exemptions
100,000 Buyer/Seller Exemptions
1,000 Changes Annually
131,00
0
Fuel Tax Scenarios

22. County /
Parish
State
Federal
City /
Town
International
GovernmentCommerce
MPOS /
POS
eComm
ERP
Engines and Databases
Calculation / Doc Management / Forms
AVALARA
3rd Party
Products
ENGINES & DATABASES
CONTENT
Boundaries, Rules, Rates, Citations,
Exemptions, Licenses, Certificates, Forms,
Products, UPC/HTC codes..
$
Platform
Payment
Determination Doc Mgmt Compliance
PRODUCTS400+
Connectors
to 3rd Partner
Systems
API

23. Engines and Databases
Calculation / Doc Management /
Forms
400+ Connectors

25. 25CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARY |

26. 26CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARY |

27. curl --user 1234567890:A1B2C3D4E5F6G7H8
--header "Content-Type: text/json"
--data @/Docs/getTaxRequest.json
"https://development.avalara.net/1.0/tax/get"

28. {
"CustomerCode": "ABC4335",
"DocDate": "2014-01-01",
"CompanyCode": "APITrialCompany",
"Client": "AvaTaxSample",
"DocCode": "INV001",
"DetailLevel": "Tax",
"Commit": "false",
"DocType": "SalesInvoice",
"CustomerUsageType": "G",
"BusinessIdentificationNo": "234243",
"ExemptionNo": "12345",
"Discount": "50",
"TaxOverride": {
"TaxOverrideType": "TaxDate",
"Reason": "Adjustment for return",
"TaxDate": "2013-07-01",
"TaxAmount": "0",
curl --user 1234567890:A1B2C3D4E5F6G7H8
--header "Content-Type: text/json"
--data @/Docs/getTaxRequest.json
"https://development.avalara.net/1.0/tax/get"

29. {
"CustomerCode": "ABC4335",
"DocDate": "2014-01-01",
"CompanyCode": "APITrialCompany",
"Client": "AvaTaxSample",
"DocCode": "INV001",
"DetailLevel": "Tax",
"Commit": "false",
"DocType": "SalesInvoice",
"CustomerUsageType": "G",
"BusinessIdentificationNo": "234243",
"ExemptionNo": "12345",
"Discount": "50",
"TaxOverride": {
"TaxOverrideType": "TaxDate",
"Reason": "Adjustment for return",
"TaxDate": "2013-07-01",
"TaxAmount": "0",
curl --user 1234567890:A1B2C3D4E5F6G7H8
--header "Content-Type: text/json"
--data @/Docs/getTaxRequest.json
"https://development.avalara.net/1.0/tax/get"

30. {
"DocCode": "INV001",
"DocDate": "2014-01-01",
"ResultCode": "Success",
"TaxAddresses": [
{
"Address": "118 N Clark St",
"AddressCode": "02",
"City": "Chicago",
"Country": "US",
"JurisCode": "1703114000",
"Latitude": "41.884132",
"Longitude": "-87.631048",
"PostalCode": "60602",
"Region": "IL",
"TaxRegionId": "2062953"
},
{
"Address": "45 Fremont Street",
"AddressCode": "01",
"City": "San Francisco",
"Country": "US",

31. {
"DocCode": "INV001",
"DocDate": "2014-01-01",
"ResultCode": "Success",
"TaxAddresses": [
{
"Address": "118 N Clark St",
"AddressCode": "02",
"City": "Chicago",
"Country": "US",
"JurisCode": "1703114000",
"Latitude": "41.884132",
"Longitude": "-87.631048",
"PostalCode": "60602",
"Region": "IL",
"TaxRegionId": "2062953"
},
{
"Address": "45 Fremont Street",
"AddressCode": "01",
"City": "San Francisco",
"Country": "US",

32. Year
Web Sales
('000) Growth
2014 $304,913 15.4%

34. In this world nothing can
be said to be certain,
except death and taxes.
- Benjamin Franklin
@avadev

35. http://developer.avalara.com
@avadev