Aseptico streamlines sales tax

Founded in 1975, Aseptico manufactures and distributes high-quality dental equipment such as implant, endodontic, and portable dental systems to customers in 40 states and more than 125 countries. 

Aseptico was registered, collecting, and remitting sales tax in five states. But the company suspected it had additional obligations due to its broad sales footprint and growing sales channels. Aseptico underwent a nexus study that confirmed it wasn’t collecting and remitting in some states where it had nexus.

“Our owner wanted to be compliant, but the volume and complexity were more than we could handle at our size,” says CFO Paul Jackson. “It was cheaper to automate, because we didn’t have the resources to handle it all.” 

After completing their nexus study, Aseptico engaged Avalara Voluntary Compliance & VDA Services with the states where a past obligation existed. The voluntary disclosure agreement (VDA) process enabled Aseptico to manage past tax liabilities. 

While working through the nexus study and VDAs, Paul discovered the Streamlined Sales Tax (SST) program and the benefits of working with an SST certified service provider (CSP), like Avalara.

“Some states we needed to add were SST member states,” Paul explains, “so it made sense to participate since we qualified for Volunteer status in those states.” 

As the VDA process wrapped up, Paul prepared to register in the other non-SST states and the SST member states. Then the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the state in South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc., further supporting Paul’s decision to register in all SST states.

“By the time Wayfair hit, all we had to do was pull the trigger,” says Paul. “I emailed my Avalara account manager, and the SST team reached out. They asked a few questions, got me registered, set up filing calendars, and started doing returns. Because we were so prepared, the whole thing took less than a month.” 

For SST states where Aseptico qualifies for Volunteer status, Avalara registers, calculates, and remits on the company’s behalf at no cost. Aseptico pays nothing for its sales tax services in more than half the states where it’s registered. Nevertheless, Paul adds, “If SST wasn’t a thing, I’d be paying Avalara for those transactions and returns. It’s astounding how many companies don’t understand those benefits.” 

Avalara also works with state auditors on Aseptico’s behalf if they’re ever audited in states where they’re an SST Volunteer seller. In all registered states, Avalara AvaTax provides nexus alerts to help monitor economic nexus thresholds. 

Overall, the Avalara tax compliance platform significantly reduced the company’s audit risk across 40 states. “We were audited by the State of Florida for a period that straddled our go-live date with Avalara and the findings on either side of the implementation were substantially different,” Paul explains. “We were very clean, post-Avalara, while the period before had lots of problems — paying the wrong amounts, applying the wrong rates, getting item taxability wrong.”