Looking for some clarity. We use AVALARA for sales tax calculations. My understanding is that sales tax is calculated based on where the item is being shipped to. Our accounting team said that fulfillment location determines the sales tax calculation. In other words, sales tax is calculated based on where you are shipping it from (warehouse location) and not where it eventually ends up (shipping address location). Any tax experts who are using AVALARA for sales tax care to clarify?

You and your accounting team are actually both correct. When it comes to calculating sales tax, the ship-to location, ship-from location and even the order acceptance location can all factor into the actual sales tax calculated on a transaction.

Each state has their own rules, so depending on where the items ships from (within the state vs outside of the state) can change the tax calculation depending on the state.

So in general its Ship to for Goods and Bill to for Services. Thats a very general statement but good for a NetSuite Avalara setup

So we only ship goods and not services. Are you saying then that the Ship To address takes precedence over the Ship From Location? Our accounting team had to add a warehouse location to the Avalara configuration to signal to Avalara that it shouldn't be charging tax. The explanation to me was that Avalara's logic is "where, who, what". If where fails then it charges tax.

So once you deep dive into it all locations get sent to the tax service (I deal with another one right now) and ultimately the service decides which jurisdiction should charge tax.

ok thanks