Avalara TrustFile GST to Support India’s Implementation of a National GST Tax

Avalara, Inc., a provider of cloud-based tax compliance automation, has announced the launch of Avalara TrustFile GST in India to help businesses and tax practitioners easily achieve and maintain compliance with the country’s new Goods and Services Tax (GST) law implemented July 1, 2017.

The new national indirect tax regime makes India a unified common market and establishes GST as the single tax on the supply of goods and services, spanning manufacturer to consumer. The GST system replaces the prior indirect tax regime of multiple cascading taxes levied by Central and State governments. While the new unified system is expected to ease the burden on the consumer and make doing business in India more appealing for foreign companies in the long term, the immediate impact falls to millions of businesses throughout India, and international companies selling into India, to find a solution to comply with the new rules.

Avalara has been named an Application Service Provider (ASP) and is partnering with authorized GST Suvidha Providers (GSPs) in India — including Excellon Software — to offer businesses Avalara TrustFile GST, its automated GST compliance solution. The partnerships leverage Avalara’s experience as the only authorized ASP that has automated GST in both Canada and Brazil — two other countries currently using GST — where Avalara already helps hundreds of companies stay compliant.

Vishnu Tambi, CEO, Excellon Software: “Avalara is an established expert in GST and VAT in other countries where it currently supports hundreds of businesses with their indirect tax requirements. Therefore, in our nation’s transition to a new digital compliance system, we trust in its expertise and accuracy for our businesses. Avalara and Excellon will help finance teams comply with GST with automated tools and analytics.”

“Avalara identified India as a priority market 10 years ago, and we are excited to continue our expansion in one of the world’s fastest growing economies,” said Scott McFarlane, Avalara co-founder and CEO. “With the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax and digitized return filing process in India, companies in India or selling into India need an efficient solution to comply with the new regulations. GST compliance is challenging, but Avalara TrustFile GST is a proven tool that improves compliance accuracy and efficiency for customers.”

Avalara TrustFile GST

Avalara TrustFile GST is secure cloud-based software that provides end-to-end reconciliation and enables businesses and consultants to prepare and file timely GST returns.

Key features of Avalara TrustFile GST:

Automates returns preparation and filing of GSTR 1 to 11
Easily retrieves data from a company’s ERP, accounting system, or ecommerce platforms
Validates incoming data and flags corrections
Classifies and allocates input tax credits
Supports multiple Goods and Services Tax Identification Numbers (GSTINs) to handle multistate filing or multiple business units
Provides configurable auto-reconciliation with built-in intelligence

An IT ecosystem that incorporates a network of GSPs and ASPs will help corporate and tax consultants achieve better data-based compliance under the GST regime. For more information about Avalara TrustFile GST, please visit: https://www.avalara.com/in/products/gst-returns-filing/

About GST in India

GST launched July 1, 2017, and is the most significant tax overhaul in India’s history. The “one nation, one tax” vision of the Indian government creates a uniform indirect tax structure and rates that encompass various Central, state, and local indirect taxes and levies. Multiple indirect taxes levied by both the Centre and states — Value Added Tax (VAT), service tax, Central Value Added Tax (CENVAT), entry tax, entertainment tax, local body tax, stamp duty, and land revenue tax — have been eliminated, with the exception of customs duty. A dual Central and state GST will be applicable simultaneously on goods and services within the state. In the case of interstate delivery of goods and services, an integrated GST will apply.

What GST means for businesses

In the long term, the new regime will lower the tax burden on consumers because multiple indirect taxes, other than customs duty, have been withdrawn. For international businesses, compliance, budgeting, management of expenses, and tracking of taxes will become more efficient, so companies can focus resources on pursuing growth opportunities rather than managing complex taxes. Additionally, GST promotes a unified market in India that makes doing business across India or sourcing from India more appealing.

Initially, however, more than 10 million businesses in India will be required to adopt compliance automation under the reform. Businesses must shift from filing one VAT return every three months to ongoing invoice data transmission and multiple form filings each month. Additionally, the shift from source- to destination-based taxation now requires Indian companies to potentially file in every state in which they have a presence, rather than filing in only their origin state.

Both businesses and tax practitioners alike will need to identify a solution that enables them to respond accurately to these indirect taxation complexities.

“India’s reform is another example of global digital tax compliance becoming a reality. Last year Avalara became the first full-service SaaS provider to cover all tax compliance requirements for companies conducting business in Brazil,” McFarlane continued. Brazil requires companies in-country or those doing business there to upload digital records of every transaction to a government system provided by the Brazilian Federal Tax Authority. Following in the footsteps of Avalara Brazil, the launch of Avalara TrustFile GST in India reinforces Avalara’s ongoing commitment to helping businesses worldwide painlessly keep up with the shift to digital tax compliance,” McFarlane concluded.