Avalara and Alternatives
Does anyone else use Avalara with any success?
We want to switch from Avalara to AVASK for our VAT services on Amazon and have just been told by Amazon support that this is not possible, and if we decide to do this, we would have to unsubscribe completely from VAT services on Amazon and hire Avask as our tax agent outside of Amazon.
Furthermore, they have also said “if you unsubscribe from our service, you will not be able to subscribe again.”
We are now stuck between a rock and a hard place. Avalara are probably onc of the worst companies I have ever had to deal with and entrusting them with our VAT returns has been a terrible experience. Amazon don’t offer tax advice, Avalara do, but at an additional cost, any email takes 3-4 days to be answered and we simply require better support as we look to expand and grow our business on Amazon.
How is every else’s experience with Avalara and have you found an alternative solution?
Avalara and Alternatives
Does anyone else use Avalara with any success?
We want to switch from Avalara to AVASK for our VAT services on Amazon and have just been told by Amazon support that this is not possible, and if we decide to do this, we would have to unsubscribe completely from VAT services on Amazon and hire Avask as our tax agent outside of Amazon.
Furthermore, they have also said “if you unsubscribe from our service, you will not be able to subscribe again.”
We are now stuck between a rock and a hard place. Avalara are probably onc of the worst companies I have ever had to deal with and entrusting them with our VAT returns has been a terrible experience. Amazon don’t offer tax advice, Avalara do, but at an additional cost, any email takes 3-4 days to be answered and we simply require better support as we look to expand and grow our business on Amazon.
How is every else’s experience with Avalara and have you found an alternative solution?
Seller_ae51e0CJoHqCX
Yes I am registered for PAN-EU and you only need a fiscal rep for wherever the goods are going. What you need to remember is that you only need a single fiscal rep in the EU and this should be where the stock is sent. The idea for PAN-EU is that Amazon once they receive it, split this and send it to wherever you hold the VAT registrations for. I have sent my stuff to both Germany and France but I only have a fiscal rep in France who cover me for the whole of Europe. They are paid per boxes sent as I am sure you have already done as well.
Amazon are aware this is a pain and they are in a good position to understand the issues we have. Switching may prove to be jumping the gun. I am like you with Avalara but AVASk are sorting out the other bits so stick with it for now, I am thinking they are just going through the processes to see what works. It sounds to me like we are both on very similar journeys.
As for the de-registrations, again I am not sure, but the last thing you want to do is de-register and pay for that and then pay to register again. Remember there will be limitations on where you can store goods if you deregister. The whole point of having Poland and Czech when you probably don’t do trade there is because you save in fulfillment fees. If the market is not open for storage then these fees may increase and you will be charged EFN fees instead of local fees that you get with PAN-EU.
Still is a minefield but I cannot see anyone wanting to start this journey but it is difficult to get out once you are in and I cannot help you decide what you think will suit your business.
3 replies
Seller_ae51e0CJoHqCX
Have you raised a formal complaint with Avalara to air your grievances? They do have a complaints process and you will given a complaint handler who will ensure that your concerns have been addressed.
I believe that some of the personnel at Amazon VAT services are Avalara sub contractors so perhaps why you come across these difficulties. Amazon and Avalara do work ok with each other.
I have worked with both Avalara and Avask and still work with both today. My advice if you are selling around Europe is to actually hang in there, Avask, Singularity and Avalara have a lot of cross overs and you may need all of these tax agents to help you.
They are right that you no longer can pick and choose Amazon programs, you have to be invited on and I can only assume you was invited into a program by Amazon that involved Avalara. If you wish to use someone else then it would be a case of doing it externally or waiting for Amazon to produce the invite. I am only really reiterating what you have been advised.
Yes you are stuck between a rock and place. My little bit of experience with both companies is that Avalara don’t do much for very little cost and Avask can do more but costs a bit more. It is a case you get what you pay for.
Seller_tz74iYhHLULoK
Hi JR,
Thanks for such a detailed reply. I appreciate your insight.
I haven’t raised a complaints process with Avalara, so maybe I should do that first. I just find the whole VAT services and support given by Avalara and Amazon to be quite sub standard. AVASK on the other hand - I have absolutely no complaints with whatsoever, hence wanting to migrate away from our current setup with Avalara and change to AVASK for VAT services.
We use AVASK to move goods to the EU using ATS and they have been brilliant. Each month, we have experienced headaches with the additional VAT reporting that you seem to get stuck between Amazon and Avalara support with when having difficulties. Both Avalara and Amazon are not a tax advisors, and sometimes a little more finesse is required as there are a few elements of these additional reports that can be complex, not to mention the process of uploading / recording the data.
We wanted to switch to AVASK so that the entire process was more streamlined, but this is not possible using VAT services with Amazon, so I think we will just end our subscription with them early, and bring AVASK in to do it on our own accord. It costs a little more this way, but the peace of mind is worth it.
Another question is you don’t mind advising on - are you registered in most PAN EU marketplaces and have fiscal reps for all? I am starting to think that it would be advantageous to deregister from a few of the minnows, and just send goods directly to Germany and have them fulfilled from there. This didn’t used to be possible, but more recently I have heard that it is. Any thoughts on that personally?
Thanks again!
Seller_ae51e0CJoHqCX
Yes I am registered for PAN-EU and you only need a fiscal rep for wherever the goods are going. What you need to remember is that you only need a single fiscal rep in the EU and this should be where the stock is sent. The idea for PAN-EU is that Amazon once they receive it, split this and send it to wherever you hold the VAT registrations for. I have sent my stuff to both Germany and France but I only have a fiscal rep in France who cover me for the whole of Europe. They are paid per boxes sent as I am sure you have already done as well.
Amazon are aware this is a pain and they are in a good position to understand the issues we have. Switching may prove to be jumping the gun. I am like you with Avalara but AVASk are sorting out the other bits so stick with it for now, I am thinking they are just going through the processes to see what works. It sounds to me like we are both on very similar journeys.
As for the de-registrations, again I am not sure, but the last thing you want to do is de-register and pay for that and then pay to register again. Remember there will be limitations on where you can store goods if you deregister. The whole point of having Poland and Czech when you probably don’t do trade there is because you save in fulfillment fees. If the market is not open for storage then these fees may increase and you will be charged EFN fees instead of local fees that you get with PAN-EU.
Still is a minefield but I cannot see anyone wanting to start this journey but it is difficult to get out once you are in and I cannot help you decide what you think will suit your business.
