Sales tax can be a pain to deal with.
With stacks of paperwork, hefty amounts of calculations, and lots of challenging obstacles, it’s no wonder why sales tax compliance is one of the most difficult business processes. You may be surprised to learn that there is an easier way around it. TaxJar is a cloud-based, state-of the-art automated sales tax platform.
With TaxJar, all the challenges in sales tax are simplified, giving you and your business the upper hand. In this review, we’ll take you through all the things you need to know about this service. We’ll also share with you the pros and cons, and our final thoughts about whether or not TaxJar is worth adding to your business management ecosystem. Let’s go!
For those of you who prefer a more visual experience, here is a video review from Marcus Stonelius’ YouTube channel. To get a comprehensive overview of TaxJar, you may still want to check out our article below.
What does TaxJar do? Setting Up Taxjar In Shopify
TaxJar was established in 2013 to serve online sellers and business entities. Its goal is to simplify the complex process of sales tax compliance. The United States has over 11,000 tax jurisdictions, each of which has different rules depending on the district or state. Back then, businesses had to comply with sales tax regulations and rates according to where their transactions were held, where their inventory stocks were located, and how many employees they had hired.
Although it may seem simple from a superficial level, the process is actually quite complex. Companies were given different tax burdens to handle, which can vary depending on various factors. The US Supreme Court in 2018 ruled that all businesses have to pay sales tax regardless of where the product was purchased. Business owners were forced to learn and remember tax codes after tax codes, adding more complexity.
That’s quite a task. TaxJar simplifies the complex tasks of sales tax compliance and makes them simpler. That way, you can prioritize what matters the most with your business, without the added hassles of hefty tax computation.
What Are Its Pros and Cons?
To help you weigh in on your decision, we’ve provided you with a list of pros and cons of using TaxJar as a business tool. Setting Up Taxjar In Shopify
Pros
- TaxJar has been designed to be simple, quick, and automated. It will keep you in compliance for more than 11,000 tax jurisdictions across the U.S.
- With the AutoFile tool, you won’t need to worry much longer about due dates and late submissions of tax returns, etc., as TaxJar takes care of the rest for you – more on that later!
- Using TaxJar for sales tax compliance saves you more time compared to filing everything manually, giving you the chance to focus more on your business.
- It’s easy to use – you don’t need to be a full-on tax or accounting expert to understand how it works!
- TaxJar is not only less complicated than other software, but it also offers amazing customer support and a wealth of resources that will help you comply with sales tax.
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Cons
- Although TaxJar is known to be generally convenient, it may be a bit complicated on the first try, especially for the uninitiated merchant.
- Sometimes, the interface can be frustrating. Some users report having to open more than five tabs just to file a tax return for one state.
- Pricing for lower-tier plans may vary depending on factors like additional AutoFile fees if credits are exhausted. We’ll be discussing pricing soon.
How Much Does TaxJar Cost?
TaxJar offers three pricing options: Premium, Professional, or Starter. Let’s dive deep into these subscription tiers.
Starter
The Starter plan starts at $19/month and provides essential sales tax services to small businesses. The plan usually handles 200 total returns and purchase orders per month. However, the price could change if there is more. This tier offers free tools that can help you significantly with sales tax compliance like sales tax reporting, AI-driven product taxability recommendations, and basic CSV data imports.
Customers are also given data integrations with up to three e-commerce services and four free AutoFiles per year included within the tier. Starter also allows for support for multiple business accounts and e-mail support.
For professionals
If your business has more experience and expanded reach, more challenges may likely come ahead. The Professional plan is for you. Starting at $99/month, you get all the features from the Starter tier, plus some upgrades like full API access, advanced CSV imports, and economic nexus features.
Professional includes an increased limit on data import and API integration, from 3 to 10,10,000 advanced API calls per hour, up to 10 team managers users, and 12 free AutoFiles per calendar year. TaxJar Professional users who manage to generate over 1,000 orders per year are eligible for phone customer service in addition to e-mail support. If you receive more than 200 orders, the price for this tier could change.
Premium
TaxJar Premium includes all the features that you need to ensure sales tax compliance. Premium includes all the Starter and Professional features for enterprises and experienced businesses, as well as unlimited API and data integrations to many e-commerce services and unlimited AutoFiles. There is also unlimited team usage.
It also includes increased API calls per minute at 25,000, as well as white-glove support in the form of a dedicated account management team. Premium is not priced in a fixed range like the other plans. Instead, it’s fully customizable according to your business’s needs, and can be negotiable through TaxJar’s customer service.
Try it Free of Charge
If you’re interested in TaxJar, you may want to check out its free 30-day trial. All the features and tools of the Professional plan are available to you, including API access, integrations, data imports and team and user management. You don’t need to pay upfront to access this trial! Setting Up Taxjar In Shopify
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The Features of TaxJar
Automatic Sales Tax Calculations
TaxJar offers fully optimized functions and services that are designed to reduce the tax burden. One of those is its calculation process. Calculating sales tax with TaxJar will give you instantly accurate results! Not only does it always ensure you the right rates in correspondence with your customer’s address and tax jurisdiction, but it also gives you the amounts in real-time.
With TaxJar, you won’t need to take long to calculate taxes one-by-one nor go through the added hassle of keeping up with the changes. Its team keeps track of all updates related to sales tax laws and rates and incorporates them into the platform periodically.
TaxJar Report
TaxJar provides more than just top-notch calculations. It also offers automated reports that include sales tax data from linked accounts, CSV imports and individual state sales tax reports. All of this data is automatically combined into reports for different states with breakdowns according to their tax jurisdictions.
TaxJar makes it easier and more accessible to organize reports. Everything is centralized, which allows for faster collaborations with your finance department. Its reporting dashboard lets you see in-depth analysis based on your recent activity. TaxJar automatically collects data so you’re always up to date.
AutoFile
AutoFile makes this platform stand out among the rest. It’s an electronic sales tax filing tool that gathers user information from e-commerce providers and files them into an automated sales tax return report and payment to be submitted to any state.
What’s great about AutoFile is that you’re guaranteed to never miss a deadline! AutoFile is designed to be easy to use and eliminates the stress of paperwork. Plus, it saves you time in the long run!
However, while it looks astoundingly impressive, it’s worth mentioning that it can be quite like a limited luxury to lower-tier subscribers. Starter plan users, for example, get only up to 4 free AutoFile enrollments per year.
Sales Tax Nexus Insights
If you use TaxJar in selling your items online, it’s important to know a thing about economic nexus. This topic has been covered briefly before. However, to sum up, rather than paying sales tax in your home state, customers will be required to pay sales tax in the states where they purchased your products. Setting Up Taxjar In Shopify
Determining the nexus can be confusing. TaxJar offers easy-to-understand insights that will help you stay on track. The economic nexus dashboard doesn’t just let you check activity between states but also lets you know if you’ve reached the required nexus threshold for each state. It comes in very handy, especially if your business continues to grow and reach more states.
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Integrations with Online Business Services
TaxJar can be seamlessly integrated with many online business services. To determine sales tax, you can connect your account with online marketplaces such as Amazon, Etsy and eBay. You can also integrate with e-commerce platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, and similar services where you may sell your listings, payment gateways like Stripe and PayPal, and operation management systems such as Oracle NetSuite, Intuit QuickBooks, and more.
Square, WooCommerce, Walmart, Salesforce and Magento are just a few of the other services that can be integrated with TaxJar. If you can’t find your preferred online business solution in the list, you can always build your own with the TaxJar API, or by importing all data from third-party services through CSV.
Is TaxJar the Perfect Fit for Your Business?
TaxJar has been a reliable and high-tech solution that addresses most of the issues business owners have in managing sales tax. It is a popular choice because it is easy to use, it saves time, and it can help your business in many other ways.
It’s highly recommended, and we are right to be so. However, it isn’t perfect in every aspect. Some users reported having problems with customization, while others found issues with TaxJar’s integration with some apps like Shopify. There were also issues with interface misunderstandings and automated calculation. These issues could be addressed.
Issues aside, if we answered the question “Is TaxJar the perfect fit for your business?” it would be a resounding YES! We highly recommend you try this out as part of your business strategy!
Frequently Asked Questions Setting Up Taxjar In Shopify
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Which types of businesses use TaxJar?
TaxJar can be used by small and medium businesses, large-scale enterprises, and even freelancers. As of 2022, TaxJar has served over 20,000 businesses, including some of the well-known ones, like Coca-Cola, Land Rover, Microsoft, Shein, and many others.
Is TaxJar available in countries other than the U.S.
TaxJar features are currently limited to the United States. They have not yet been extended to other countries outside US jurisdiction. The TaxJar API tool only is available in certain territories outside the United States. TaxJar API is available to businesses in Canada, Australia and the UK.
Can I cancel my TaxJar account? If so, how?
You can cancel your TaxJar account if you ever feel dissatisfied with the service by going to your account settings. Once you head over to Plans & Billings, you can click the red link that leads you to cancel your current subscription.
You will lose access to TaxJar’s reporting tools and AutoFile. You can reactivate or cancel your subscription at any time if you want to gain access to these services.
What are the alternatives to TaxJar?
TaxJar isn’t the only solution for sales tax compliance. There are many other options, some with better features, compatibility with more countries, and some with lower price ranges. The following are alternatives to TaxJar.
- Avalara
- Sovos Taxify
- Vertex
- TaxCloud