It can be difficult to manage sales tax.
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. Do check out our article below, however, because it has a comprehensive overview of TaxJar.
What does TaxJar do? When Should I Start Using Taxjar?
Since its inception in 2013, TaxJar serves business enterprises and online sellers, intending to ease the already complicated 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. Businesses had to adhere to sales tax regulations back then. Rates were determined by where transactions were made, inventory stock locations, and the number of employees they employed.
This process may appear simple on a surface level, but in reality, it’s quite complicated. Businesses were tasked with handling varying degrees of tax burdens, and these may vary based on varying factors. Things got even more complicated when in 2018, the US Supreme Court ruled that businesses must pay sales tax based on where the consumer purchased any product. This resulted in more burdens for business owners, having to learn and memorize tax codes upon tax codes on top of everything else.
It’s a lot to take, right? Well, TaxJar takes most of the complications in sales tax compliances and turns them into simple, less daunting tasks. 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. When Should I Start Using Taxjar?
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.
- The AutoFile tool will take care of all the details for you.
- 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 is easy to use, and you don’t have to be an accountant or tax expert to understand it!
- Aside from its less tedious nature, TaxJar also provides businesses with amazing customer support and plenty of helpful resources to guide you through when it comes to sales tax compliance!
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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.
- The pricing of lower-tier plans can vary based on factors such as additional AutoFile fees if you’ve used up the free credits allowed in a plan – more on that as we’ll discuss the pricing shortly.
How Much Does TaxJar Cost?
TaxJar offers three pricing options: Premium, Professional, or Starter. Let’s take a deeper look at 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. In addition, Starter allows support for multiple business accounts, as well as e-mail support.
Professional
If your business has more experience and expanded reach, more challenges may likely come ahead. The Professional plan is for you. You get all the features of the Starter Tier, plus upgrades such as full API access and advanced CSV imports.
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. If you use TaxJar Professional and manage to rake up to over 1,000 orders, you’re entitled to phone customer support on top of e-mail support. If you receive more than 200 orders, the price for this tier could change.
Premium
With TaxJar Premium, you get all the features you could ask for when it comes to sales tax compliance and much more. Apart from providing experienced businesses and enterprises with all the Starter and Professional features, Premium offers unlimited API and data integrations with many e-commerce and marketing services, unlimited AutoFiles, and an unlimited number of team users.
You also get 25,000 API calls per hour, and white-glove support through a dedicated account management group. Premium is not priced in a fixed range like the other plans. It is fully customizable to meet your business’s needs and can be negotiated through TaxJar’s customer support.
Free Trial
TaxJar is worth a free 30-day trial. You can get full access to all the Professional plan features and tools, including API access and integrations, data imports, and team and user management. You don’t need to pay upfront to access this trial! When Should I Start Using Taxjar?
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TaxJar’s Features
Automated 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! It will instantly calculate the sales tax for you, and it will always match the correct rates with the customer’s address.
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 doesn’t just provide you with top-notch calculations, but also automated reports on all the sales tax data collected by the platform from linked accounts, CSV imports, and even individual state sales tax reports. All this is automatically compiled into reports for different states, complete with breakdowns from 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. You’re also always up-to-date, as TaxJar collects data automatically all the time.
AutoFile
AutoFile makes this platform stand out among the rest. It is an electronic sales tax filing platform that collects user information from ecommerce providers and then files it into an automated sales tax report and payment to be submitted in any state.
AutoFile’s greatest asset is the fact that you are guaranteed to not miss a deadline. There’s no need to even go through the stress of paperwork or extra hands, as it’s designed to be easily manageable. 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. When Should I Start Using Taxjar?
Determining the nexus can be confusing. Thankfully, you don’t have to jump through hoops, because TaxJar provides accessible insights to keep you on track. The economic nexus dashboard not only allows you to check the activity between states, but also shows you if you have reached the required 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. Integrations can be made with e-commerce platforms such as Shopify, BigCommerce and other similar services that allow you to sell your listings, use payment gateways such as Stripe or PayPal, and operate management systems like Oracle NetSuite, Intuit QuickBooks and many 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 right fit for your business?
TaxJar has proven to be very reliable and high-tech, easing most of the challenges business owners face in their day-to-day lives when it comes to managing sales tax. It’s been a top pick for these reasons: 1) it’s easy to use, 2) it’s time-saving, and 3) it helps you and your business in many ways.
It’s highly recommended, and we are right to be so. However, it isn’t perfect in every aspect. Some users had issues with customization while others experienced problems with TaxJar’s integration to Shopify and other apps. There have also been problems with automated calculation as well as interface misunderstandings. It would be nice if those issues were to be improved.
All other issues aside, TaxJar would be the perfect fit for any business. This is a great tool to add to your business strategy.
Most Frequently Asked Questions When Should I Start Using Taxjar?
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Which types of businesses use TaxJar?
Small and medium-sized businesses, large-scale companies, freelancers, and individuals can all use TaxJar. 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.
Does TaxJar work in other countries outside the U.S?
TaxJar features are currently limited to the United States. They are not yet available in other countries. Only the TaxJar API tool is supported in a few non-US territories. 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. You can cancel your subscription by clicking the red link once you have accessed Plans & Billings.
You will lose access to TaxJar’s reporting tools and AutoFile. If you wish to regain access to those services, you can reactivate your account and subscription anytime.
What are the alternatives to TaxJar?
TaxJar isn’t the only solution for sales tax compliance. There are other alternatives out there, with some offering more features and compatibility with more territories, and others with cheaper price ranges. The following are alternatives to TaxJar.
- Avalara
- Sovos Taxify
- Vertex
- TaxCloud