Why won't Avalara and TaxJar tell me about SST benefits?

Because telling you would cost them revenue. Avalara and TaxJar charge you for compliance in SST states. If they explained the SST program and connected you with a Certified Service Provider, those states would become free for you, and they’d lose the fees.

How the incentive works against you

The SST program is designed so that remote sellers pay nothing for compliance in member states. The states compensate a Certified Service Provider directly. But this only works if the seller is enrolled through a CSP.

Avalara and TaxJar are not Certified Service Providers. They’re sales tax software platforms, they provide tools, but those tools come with fees. For a mid-market brand paying Avalara $300–600/month, a meaningful portion of that bill likely covers states where the seller should be paying nothing.

Avalara and TaxJar know this. They are not going to explain it to you, because explaining it accurately would be a direct argument to switch providers or reduce the scope of what you need from them.

What this means for your current bill

If you’re currently using Avalara or TaxJar, here’s how to think about what you’re likely overpaying:

1. List the states where you currently have nexus and are filing
2. Cross-reference against the 24 SST member states (Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming)
3. For each SST state where you’re a remote seller, that state’s compliance should be free through a CSP

A mid-market brand registered in 20 states, where 12 are SST states, may be paying their current provider for 12 states that a CSP would handle for free. At typical Avalara pricing, that’s real money, often several hundred dollars per month.

A note on fair framing

This isn’t a knock on Avalara or TaxJar as platforms. They provide legitimate services, and for non-SST states they’re a standard part of the compliance stack. The issue is narrower: they have a financial conflict of interest when it comes to explaining the SST program’s benefits, and that conflict reliably produces silence rather than disclosure.

Most sellers learn about the SST program and CSP model only when they talk to a CSP directly, or stumble across this information in their own research. That’s not an accident.

What to do with this information

If you have nexus in SST states and you’re currently paying a non-CSP provider for those states:

1. Identify which of your nexus states are SST member states (list above)
2. Estimate what you’re currently paying for those states in your current tool
3. Get a comparison from a CSP: the math is usually straightforward once you see it side by side

You don’t necessarily have to leave your current provider entirely. Some sellers use a CSP for SST states and a separate tool for non-SST states. Others move everything to a CSP. It depends on your full state footprint and what your current contract looks like.

Related: How do I switch from Avalara to a different provider? | Is switching sales tax software worth the disruption?