Published On: 2017-07-26

Pune:  Avalara, Inc., a leading provider of cloud-based tax compliance automation, elaborated the role of ASP in GST compliance in the Times GST Expo & Summit Pune. The one-day conference received an overwhelming response, attended by esteemed dignitaries’ i.e Rajesh Pandey, Addl DG, Directorate Gen (GST General) Pune and Rajiv Mitra, MD Govind Milk.

Avalara has a well-defined technology road-map to simplify GST for businesses. Avalara ensured to inculcate knowledge and understanding around the basic mechanism of GST & GST return filing and compliance. The event also provided a platform to collaborate, exchange learnings and discuss enablement impact regarding the roll-out of GST compliance by ASP.

To help businesses secure tax compliance under the new rules Avalara has been named an Application Service Provider (ASP), partnering with authorized GST Suvidha Providers (GSPs) in India.

In the opening presentation, CA Harshad Shinde, Product Manager, GST India spoke upon ‘The Role of ASP in GST compliance. He highlighted the role of automation in GST Compliance and also provided insights into how Avalara’s GST solution is well suited to meet the complex environments with real time processing. In the same session, William Rau, Sr. Director, Engineering for Avalara provided attendees with a checklist of attributes they should look for in a great ASP, including a strong security and reliable team, a solid history of delivering SaaS based taxation solutions, and a demonstrated ability to handle the high transaction volumes that GST compliance will require.    

Following the opening session authorities from various governmental and non-governmental organizations fielded queries and provided perspectives to “unlock the game-changer, GST, India’s biggest tax reforms for the 21^st century.” The gathering saw tremendous potential and interest from the enterprises that were keen to decode the nuances of the new tax structure.  Mr. Gautam Mukherjee, General Manager, Global Delivery elaborated why Avalara is especially apt to provide an end-end solution for GST compliance in India.   He highlighted the company’s 13+ years of experience solving the complexity of indirect tax worldwide through automation, rich content research and focus on customer success.

The post lunch sessions saw in-depth discussions towards seamless transition and integration of the financial structure from the existing to the new one.   CA Harshad Shinde of Avalara lead a lively panel discussion of fellow ASP service provides which highlighted the value added by each and helped attendees see the overall importance of this new industry segment. 

William Rau then provided the capstone presentation entitled ‘The stages of GST understanding’; he highlighted the natural progression of learning the intricacies of GST.  Every organization will begin with basic survival in the new regime with base tax rates and valid invoice formats.   They will progress through basic compliance and then understand the continuous reporting in GST that demands automation.   Only then an organization will start to see how they can grow and thrive under GST by leveraging opportunities created by the new tax code.  

His closing remarks encouraged all attendees to share what they learnt during the summit.  Mr Rau emphasized, “GST is not a zero-sum game. We all benefit together as we collectively grow and understand, the free flow of tax credits is only possible if everyone in the value chain understand their part.  Building this understanding becomes the responsibility for all of us to truly have one country under one tax.”

About Avalara

Avalara helps businesses of all sizes achieve compliance with transactional taxes, including sales and use, VAT, excise, communications, and other tax types. The company delivers comprehensive, automated, cloud-based solutions that are designed to be fast, accurate, and easy to use.  Avalara’s Compliance Cloud™ platform helps customers manage complicated and burdensome tax compliance obligations imposed by state, local, and other taxing authorities throughout the world.

Avalara offers more than 550 pre-built connectors into leading accounting, ERP, ecommerce and other business applications, making the integration of tax and compliance solutions easy for customers. Each year, the company processes billions of indirect tax transactions for customers and users, files more than a million tax returns and manages millions of tax exemption certificates and other compliance documents.

 A privately held company, Avalara’s venture capital investors include Sageview Capital, Battery Ventures, Warburg Pincus, Technology Crossover Ventures, Arthur Ventures, and other institutional and individual investors. Headquartered in Seattle, Avalara has offices across the U.S. and overseas in the U.K., Belgium, Brazil, and India. More information at www.avalara.com