Avalara for Communications manages escalating tax complexity
Results
Increased compliance
Integrated systems
Cost savings
Summary
Results
- Increased compliance
- Integrated systems
- Cost savings
Tax challenges
- Tax complexity
- Compliance risk
- Company growth
Products used
Avalara AvaTax for Communications
Delivers tax calculations on a broad array of communications transactions by directly connecting to your current billing or ERP system, or to an in-house build via API.
Avalara Returns for Communications
Transaction tax returns preparation, filing, and remittance paired with a centralized online portal for easy tax compliance management with a high degree of transparency.
Benefits
- Single solution for complex communications tax management
- Integration with existing business systems creating process efficiency
- Peace of mind knowing that compliance management is more accurate at a lower cost than manual systems
Industry type
Communications
Calculate taxes and file returns for VoIP, IoT, telecom, streaming, and cable products and services.
Company overview
Customer
fuboTV
Industry
Communications
Tax type
Sales and use
Communications
Streaming company fuboTV Inc. integrates predictive, free-to-play games into select sports content. As a cable television replacement product, fuboTV aims to turn passive viewers into active participants by defining a new category of interactive sports and entertainment television.
Based in New York, the company has customers in all 50 states and is growing its international footprint through acquisitions.
Tax challenges
Senior Vice President and Controller Larry Wills joined fuboTV in 2018, shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. “That was really a game changer. That decision opened up a revenue stream for many states that didn’t exist prior to that decision,” he remembers.
Since the Wayfair decision, Larry has watched a growing number of states change their legislation to begin taxing streaming services.
Communications taxes, which are different and more complex than sales tax, often require separate and specific returns.
And for every state that starts taxing streaming services, there are multiple jurisdictions within that state to be considered. “There are city taxes, there are county taxes,” says Larry, “and the filing frequencies are all over the place. That’s what really makes it complicated.”
Why Avalara?
Building the muscle to keep up with those growing complications required resources that fuboTV simply didn’t have. Larry wanted an automated solution with built-in expertise that would integrate well with Recurly, the system that fuboTV uses to sign up and bill its subscribers. Avalara had a pre-built connector to Recurly which made it even easier for fuboTV.
“Avalara certainly fit the bill,” he says. “We don’t have any credit card information for our subscribers,” Larry explains. “Everything is done through Recurly, so it was critical to find a partner that could integrate with Recurly. Avalara knows the locations where we generate revenue and files the returns for us.”
In addition, speed and reliability matter when selling online. With Avalara as part of fuboTV’s subscription transactions, the company is able to mitigate the risk of transaction abandonment.
Tax challenges
- Tax complexity
- Compliance risk
- Company growth
Products used
Avalara AvaTax for Communications
Delivers tax calculations on a broad array of communications transactions by directly connecting to your current billing or ERP system, or to an in-house build via API.
Avalara Returns for Communications
Transaction tax returns preparation, filing, and remittance paired with a centralized online portal for easy tax compliance management with a high degree of transparency.
Benefits
- Single solution for complex communications tax management
- Integration with existing business systems creating process efficiency
- Peace of mind knowing that compliance management is more accurate at a lower cost than manual systems
Industry type
Communications
Calculate taxes and file returns for VoIP, IoT, telecom, streaming, and cable products and services.
“Avalara does all the heavy lifting for us. We would have had to staff up pretty significantly and look for people with that specific expertise.”
—Larry Wills
Senior Vice President and Controller
“Avalara does all the heavy lifting for us. We would have had to staff up pretty significantly and look for people with that specific expertise.”
—Larry Wills
Senior Vice President and Controller
Results
Avalara is a comprehensive solution, handling all of fuboTV's needs and providing an expandable platform as more states add taxes for streaming services. Avalara AvaTax for Communications helps fuboTV more accurately calculate the morass of taxes, fees, and surcharges, while Avalara Returns for Communications helps make sure that fuboTV’s filings are timely — to the tune of about 1,000 returns per year.
What Larry appreciates most about Avalara is the worry-free compliance, which he doesn’t think fuboTV could have achieved internally.
“Avalara does all the heavy lifting for us,” he says. “We would have had to staff up pretty significantly and look for people with that specific expertise. Secondly, we would have needed to have some access to a database telling us the rates and filing frequencies. I couldn’t even begin to tell you how much that would have cost, nor would I be able to tell you how long it would have taken to build that out from scratch. It would have been a massive undertaking.”
Because he doesn’t have to handle tax calculation and filing, Larry is free to focus on bigger priorities for the publicly traded company.
“The SEC has designated us as an accelerated filer,” he explains, “which means that we only have 60 days after the end of every year to file our annual report. Whereas before we had 90 days, and that extra 30 days made a huge difference. If I had to worry about sales tax compliance and managing that effort, I’m not sure I would be able to get through the annual audit and the annual filing. Avalara has freed up my time to focus on things like that.”
