Sales-and-use tax vendor Avalara is expanding its operations into Europe. The company is preparing to open an office in London and Marshal Kushniruk, EVP of business development for the Bainbridge Island, Wash.-based vendor, is moving soon to run the business across the ocean.
The company plans on operating in both the United Kingdom and the European Union and will be providing rates and calculations for Value Added Taxes in those countries. Kushniruk says his company already handles a wide array of those. "We are looking to position ourselves as the global transaction tax leader. We calculate VAT in 72 countries today, including being able to complete VAT returns in 38 countries," he says.
Kushniruk says Avalara will utilize the same strategy of enlisting software OEMs as it has in the United Sates. Other companies write integrations that enable their accounting and ecommerce packages to work with the AvaTax engine. The company has about 85 of those relationships and plans to grow those "exponentially in 2013," Kushniruk says.
Avalara has already signed some European vendors. That includes accounting software vendors, Germany's Abas, and Sweden's Jeeves Information Systems. Other new relationships included Australia-based Big Commerce and Alterity which makes the ACCTitvate for Intuit hosted distribution and supply chain management software system.