Sovos releases new cloud platform to support tax software

Sovos, a tax software provider, has revealed the new S1 cloud platform, built to support its Sovos Intelligent Compliance Cloud. The software, released last year, combines traditional tax determination and reporting tools for sales and use tax, VAT and other transactional taxes, with modern e-accounting and e-invoicing software.

S1 was designed to modernize the tax software during a time when tax law is changing quickly. A Supreme Court decision on the South Dakota v. Wayfair Inc. case — which concerns whether an entity should collect and remit taxes in a state where it sells, but does not have a physical presence in the state in which it is selling — is expected this month. The decision, which is expected to go in favor of taxation, will have a significant impact on tax automaton software companies whose growth goes hand in hand with the growth of online sales behemoths like Amazon.

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Sovos has acquired three software companies globally since its launch of Intelligent Compliance Cloud last year, the latest of which was Stockholm-based TrustWeaver. The S1 cloud platform was needed to support this larger software infrastructure. It connects regulatory and government systems with its tax software system, and is built to be scalable to fit a business of any size. The platform also functions as a backed-up cloud network, with redundancy built in, the company reports.

“We’ve reached the point in modern taxation where tax enforcement is now embedded in the most important business processes, and that demands a new approach to tax software,” stated Sovos chief technology officer John Landy. “Unfortunately, most businesses are still working with technology that was built for an offline world. We’ve built a flexible, connected platform that can keep up with digital business models and meet the demanding standards of modern taxation, regardless of a business’s technology and infrastructure strategy.”

Features

Some features of the S1 cloud platform are:

• An adaptable rules-driven platform: Flexible services make the most important parts of applications available when they’re needed, allowing Sovos to integrate acquisitions and partner applications into solutions worldwide;

• A transaction data engine: A centralized data warehouse gives businesses a single source for all tax-related data and enables data consumption by multiple applications;

• APIs (application programming interface): Applications are available for companies’ specific financial systems and workflows, enabling business systems to communicate to governments in the changing data formats they require;

• Regulatory content management: The platform is supported by the Sovos regulatory analysis team, freeing tax teams from the work required to monitor, interpret and deliver regulatory content into systems; and

• Role-based user experience: The S1 user portal provides a single view into business tax operations and transactions, giving leaders role-based access to the data they need.

To learn more about Sovos S1, visit https://sovos.com/s1-platform/.