Kristin Alexander

Avalara, Inc. • 01/30/2025

Top tips for accounting firms: How to determine property taxability

As an accountant, you want to help your clients pay only the tax they owe — on or before when payments are due. Property tax overpayment or penalties can affect profitability and EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization).

Avalara, Inc. • 01/23/2025

Avalara tax changes 2025

I wrote the sections on beverage alcohol, communications, and excise (energy, fuel, tobacco, and vape) for Avalara's flagship annual report.

Avalara, Inc. • 01/17/2025

A step-by-step example for determining the value of your personal property

Businesses often pay more personal property tax than required because they don’t have a firm grasp on how to value their property. And a lack of understanding can lead businesses to accepting assessments at face value instead of comparing them to their own valuations and deciding whether to appeal.

Avalara, Inc. • 01/16/2025

Understanding business property tax discounts and penalties

Property tax compliance requires managing a slew of paperwork, including returns, assessment notices, and bills with varying due dates. Many businesses lose track of deadlines or misplace important documents and end up paying more property tax than they would have if they’d paid on time.

Avalara, Inc. • 12/17/2024

How product taxability and classification fit into your tax compliance automation strategy

Product taxability is perplexing. Sales and use tax rules aren’t consistent across jurisdictions or even within categories.

Avalara, Inc. • 11/25/2024

The future of AI in finance and tax compliance

Finance and tax professionals are under increased pressure to operate more efficiently while remaining strategic business advisors. The growing importance of their ability to shape the overall direction and success of their organizations is demonstrated by how companies worldwide are investing in technology to improve how finance and tax teams perform their jobs.

Avalara, Inc. • 10/11/2024

How does implementing an automated property tax solution transform daily operations?

Property tax in the United States traces its roots to colonial times. Surprisingly, many aspects of property tax compliance seem frozen in time — evidenced by numerous county assessors still requiring businesses to submit property tax returns via traditional mail, a practice reminiscent of Benjamin Franklin’s tenure as the first U.S. postmaster general in 1775.

Avalara, Inc. • 10/03/2024

The risks and challenges of navigating regulated business licenses

Convenience store operators cater to customers with many needs, including travelers filling up their gas tanks, hopeful lottery winners, and neighborhood residents with midnight munchies. Ensuring everyone gets what they came for is more complicated than stocking shelves with a bit of everything. Selling a variety of products, especially heavily regulated ones like alcohol and tobacco, makes business license management complex.

Palo Alto Networks • 07/25/2024

Moving to the head of the class with the Palo Alto Networks security platform

Los Rios Community College District partnered with Palo Alto Networks to transform its network, empowering it to provide quality education with modern infrastructure to protect users and valuable data.

Avalara, Inc. • 06/26/2024

Build a world-class finance function with tax compliance automation

Automation is a necessity for growing your business in today’s world and is vital for informed decision-making, collaboration, and agility. That was the key takeaway from a panel of finance, technology, and tax compliance experts who presented at a recent symposium hosted by CFO Magazine in Sydney, Australia.

Avalara • 05/24/2024

How to implement property tax compliance automation

For a long time, businesses had limited options for managing property tax compliance. They could handle it manually — calling on in-house tax and finance managers up to their furrowed brows in spreadsheets or relying on outdated technology solutions — or outsource to accounting or specialized consulting firms. Then came advanced property tax compliance automation, offering an alternative that can save businesses time and money.

Palo Alto Networks • 04/29/2024

American Food & Vending scales quickly with Prisma SASE

For American Food & Vending, providing excellent—and secure—customer experiences is of paramount importance. Some of its customers are in the defense space and expect American Food & Vending to have security measures in place that are as rigid as their industry’s. The company turned to Palo Alto Networks to help it better manage and protect its network, customers, and employees while supporting ambitious growth plans.

Avalara, Inc. • 04/24/2024

Drop grows and powers international ecommerce in style with Avalara

Drop builds and manages ecommerce platforms for some of the fashion industry’s biggest brands and a well-known motorcycle manufacturer. Located in Montegranaro, Italy, the company has been helping retailers sell for 20 years. Its customers’ products are shipped to buyers in Australia, Canada, U.S., U.K., and Singapore.

Avalara • 04/03/2024

Strategic tax administration: How governments can improve compliance and maximize efficiency

States, local governments, and businesses suffer when companies fail to comply with tax regulations.

Avalara • 03/20/2024

Personal property tax can be more mind-boggling in these states

Great literature is full of head-scratchers. Some questions are tough to answer: the Sphinx’s riddle in Oedipus Rex, the lead casket that contains Portia’s picture in The Merchant of Venice, Gollum’s brainteasers in The Hobbit. Property tax compliance can be just as puzzling, and getting it right in some states can be more complex than in others. This blog post sheds light on what makes personal property tax compliance in certain states particularly tricky.

Avalara, Inc. • 03/05/2024

Know Your Nexus

Getting sales tax compliance right is important. The first step is understanding where your business has nexus, or where you need to collect and remit sales and use tax. Nexus is ever-changing and it can be confusing for even savvy professionals.

Avalara • 02/23/2024

Property tax and licensing compliance for mergers and acquisitions

According to Gartner, in 2024, the success of enterprises entering into mergers and acquisitions (M&A) depends partly on their ability to navigate “an increasingly complex regulatory environment.” While Gartner points to anti-competition and national security as significant concerns and subjects of scrutiny, companies must also consider how M&A activity can make property tax compliance and licensing more complex.

Avalara, Inc. • 01/22/2024

2024 communications tax changes - Avalara

The communications industry and technology are intrinsically entwined. Both are constantly changing and the sheer volume of communications services and products makes it tough to keep track of what innovations are subject to communications tax. This is made even harder when states pass new legislation. What’s obvious is that communications services are increasingly playing a bigger role in how we spend our lives and do our jobs.

Avalara, Inc. • 01/22/2024

2024 beverage alcohol tax changes guide - Avalara

The beverage alcohol industry is experiencing both highs and lows. Changing consumer preferences and drinking behaviors are boosting sales of certain products while other markets are declining. Yet even in the face of economic pressures, environmental threats, and a continually evolving regulatory landscape, the sector is expected to find success.

Avalara • 01/08/2024

Electric Motor Supply Company energizes operational efficiencies

For a long time, sales and use tax compliance was fairly simple for EMSCO. That all changed after the 2018 U.S. Supreme Court decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. Suddenly, EMSCO found itself out of compliance with economic nexus laws in states throughout the country.