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COVID-19 Tax Relief and Hassle-Free Tax Holidays

April 29, 2020

Simplify the tax holidays and automate tax compliance while keeping up-to-date on COVID-19 tax relief laws. Plus, take advantage of three months of tax automation with Avalara at no cost!

Still pulling data from your ERP into spreadsheets, analyzing pivot tables, and manually filing each return on all the different state websites? What once may have been a manageable (yet painful) process, may now feel like an impossible task due to massive staff reductions, understanding the latest COVID-19 tax relief laws, and approaching tax holiday season.

Now may be the best time to remove your tax compliance burden altogether. And our trusted partner Avalara is ready to help Veras Retail customers automate the most important steps of tax compliance—while keeping up-to-date on COVID-19 tax relief laws.

Tax Response During COVID-19

As we all take steps towards COVID-19 recovery, governments worldwide are doing everything in their power to uplift an economy faltering under the weight of the pandemic. Tax relief varies widely by country, state, and industry. In many countries, including the United States, relief includes tax filing and payment extensions, and even temporary rate reductions to help offset financial burdens.

Rather than having to hunt for COVID-19-related laws and resources, Avalara keeps you informed with their COVID-19 Tax Relief Roundup that’s updated regularly as more information becomes available. From global and federal tax relief details to a comprehensive roundup of tax breaks by state and locality, the tax experts at Avalara help you navigate ongoing changes.

Tax Holidays Sees Public Stocking Up

This year more than 15 states will hold sales tax holidays over limited periods of time where specified products are exempt from sales tax. Like years before, a majority of them will be attached to back-to-school (or learn-from-home) season, energy efficiency, and severe weather preparedness. However, tax holidays are often difficult to plan for as there is no guarantee they’ll take place until they’re signed into law, and sometimes that doesn’t happen until days before they start.

For instance, from April 25 through April 27, the state of Texas offered a sales tax holiday for emergency preparation supplies. Popular gear stocked up by shoppers included weather radios, batteries, flashlights and coolers. But many local stores that carry such items did not seem to know about this new holiday, leaving them unprepared as stores in-the-know took advantage of the tax incentive and increased demand for these supplies.

Remove the following tax holiday headaches with tax automation tied to the POS:

  • Knowing when and where they are.Sales tax holidays are plentiful during the summer. They tend to take place over a weekend or can span an entire week. See the state-by-state guide to 2020 sales tax holidays.
  • Knowing what products are exempt. When tax holidays overlap, it’s important to cross-reference the products you sell with the items eligible for an exemption in each state.
  • Knowing what taxes to collect and not collect.Some states allow local taxing jurisdictions to opt out. To ensure compliance, you need to know which taxes need to be collected—or not collected—on each transaction.
  • Knowing the rules.Each state has its own rules regarding deliveries, exchanges, gift certificates, layaways, reporting, etc. The exemption may extend to delivery charges, for example, or it may not. These are the types of details you need to get right to be sales tax compliant.
  • Knowing price restrictions. Every state except South Carolina imposes price restrictions on eligible goods. For example, clothing must cost $75 or less to be eligible for the exemption in Ohio; in Oklahoma, the exemption applies to clothing and footwear priced less than $100.

Get Three Months of Tax Automation at No Cost

With pre-built connectors into Veras CheckOut and feasible integrations into Win/DSS, Veras Professional Services can help get you up and running quickly with an automated tax solution. Let Avalara’s solution take care of the heavy lifting to strengthen compliance, reduce audit risk, and ease tax complexity so you can focus on more pressing business matters. 

Tax automation at the point-of-sale can also help retailers prevent any negative customer experiences and sales loss from manual tax inputs, such as:

  • Customer and cashier frustration due to incorrect tax setup
  • Slowed checkout lines due to customer disputes on the tax amount or missed holiday tax
  • Returns or refunds processed due to incorrect tax setup

What’s even better is Avalara is offering three months of tax automation at no cost.

For a limited time, get the first three months of sales tax automation at no cost and make no payments for 90 days when you add Avalara’s premier cloud-based tax compliance suite to your financial and commerce systems. Sign up for 12 months of AvaTax or AvaTax plus Avalara Returns to receive the additional free three months. This offer is valid for new Avalara customers only and expires on June 30, 2020*.

Questions? We’re here to help.

Learn more and signup for this special offer or contact Veras Retail directly to get started.

* Avalara reserves the right to cancel, change, or suspend this promotion at any time.

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