Avalara.

• Position: Is selected for providing software to certified Service Provider for the Streamlined Sales Tax

Avalara, a specialist in on-demand automated tax services to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), has been chosen to operate as a Certified Service Provider for the Streamlined Sales Tax (SST) initiative that recently had 19 states signed up as members.

The Bainbridge Island, Wash.-based firm, which uses a "software as a service" model (see article on page 50) is playing up the certification as "a critical addition to the benefits of sales tax automation" it provides to customers. Two other firms, Taxware and CCH, have been chosen as CSPs for larger organizations.

The SST project is a massive, long-term effort to address state claims on cross-jurisdictional sales, particularly those that are Internet- or catalog-based. Jared Vogt, Avalara's chairman and CEO, notes that tax collection in the U.S. is immensely complicated, with more than 7,500 different jurisdictions. But the market is also huge, with some $180 billion in sales taxes collected in 2005.

Avalara's flagship product line, AvaTax[TM], links Avalara's centrally maintained sales tax engine to the user's accounting package or e-commerce system via the Internet, so there's no change to the user's existing...