Avalara CEO Scott McFarlane (Photo: Sheri Pollock)
Avalara CEO Scott McFarlane (Photo: Sheri Pollock)

There’s a whole maze of state and local laws governing sales tax collection, and it can be hard for a small business to figure out how to pay their share no matter where they ship their products.

Avalara wants to make it simple for those businesses to ensure that they’re collecting the right amount of sales tax — at the right time. Today, the Bainbridge Island-based sales tax compliance company announced TrustFile, a free cloud-based system that allows users to easily figure out what sales tax they need to pay, and keep records of their tax payments as well.

The company has information on more than 12,000 tax jurisdictions across the United States, and integrates with PayPal and Fulfillment by Amazon to make it easy for sellers to collect the sales tax they need. The new product is free, and while Avalara has plans to offer a “Pro” tier, the company isn’t releasing any details about its future plans.

It’s a big move for Avalara, considering that other companies typically charge for their small business sales tax compliance services. TrustFile could be a way for Avalara to get in the door to sell small businesses on premium services, like the company’s Avalara Returns automated sales tax filing service.

2014 been a big year so far for Avalara, which announced in February that it landed $30 million in new funding to continue the company’s growth. TrustFile’s creation was probably helped by the company’s acquisition of UPC Master last year, which gave Avalara access to the world’s largest database of product codes.

The news comes as Amazon announced plans to begin collecting sales tax in Florida on May 1, which means that about 60 percent of Americans are now subject to sales tax on purchases made through the Seattle retailer.

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