Granted Patent B1

US 12,216,660 · App. 18/503,953 · Granted Feb 4, 2025

Inventors: Nikki Nash (Seattle, WA); Gregory T. Kavounas (Bellevue, WA); Stefan Kim (Maple Valley, WA); Aaron Lee Robles (Bainbridge Island, WA); Robert Erdman (Bremerton, WA); Mark Alan Withers (Bainbridge Island, WA); Tim Diekmann (San Jose, CA)

Assignee: Avalara, Inc.

G06F16/24568G06F16/24564G06F16/248G06F16/288

Abstract

Claims (47)

1. A computer system including:

one or more processors; and

a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computer system to perform operations, in which the operations include:

receiving, from a client device associated with a seller comprising a primary entity, instructions via an automatic collection of sales tax option selection, in which the automatic collection of sales tax option is presented via an electronic user interface associated with the client device, the option selection is received by the client device via user input through the electronic user interface and the instructions are received in response to the option selection that is received by the client device via user input through the electronic user interface, and in which the instructions received from the client device cause a tax engine of an online service provider to detect exactly when an economic nexus threshold is crossed based on relationship instances representing transactions of the seller and digital tax rules;

in response to detecting that the economic nexus threshold is crossed, automatically producing a resource representing a sales tax amount, in which the producing the resource representing the sales tax amount in response to detecting that the economic nexus threshold is crossed includes:

receiving a dataset on behalf of the primary entity, in which the dataset includes data regarding a relationship instance associated with the primary entity and that represents a transaction of the primary entity;

determining a domain associated with the relationship instance;

parsing from the dataset a base value associated with the dataset representing a value of the transaction;

accessing an electronic true or false flag associated with the primary entity and with the domain;

producing a resource representing a sales tax amount having a non-zero value and that is associated with the relationship instance based on the electronic true or false flag associated with the primary entity and with the domain; and

transmitting, to the client device associated with the seller comprising the primary entity, a notification regarding the resource associated with relationship instance.

2. The computer system of claim 1 in which the operations further include:

setting a flag status after the producing the resource.

3. The computer system of claim 1 in which the operations further include:

setting a flag status before the producing the resource and the flag status is rechecked before the producing the resource.

4. The computer system of claim 1 in which:

a first threshold and a second threshold are defined by one or more digital rules about relationship instances associated with the domain.

5. The computer system of claim 1 in which the operations further include:

receiving an option setting from the primary entity before determining the domain of the relationship instance, and

in which a flag status is thus set if the option setting has been thus received, else the flag status is not thus set if the option setting has not been thus received.

6. The computer system of claim 1 in which the operations further include:

determining, by at least one computer processor and according to a warning criterion, that a first counter is approaching a first threshold or that a second counter is approaching a second threshold; and

transmitting a warning notification to the client device associated with the seller comprising the primary entity responsive to thus determining according to the warning criterion.

7. The computer system of claim 1 in which the operations further include:

looking up a first threshold associated with the domain and a second threshold associated with the domain, in which the looking up the first threshold associated with the domain and the second threshold associated with the domain includes:

looking up the first threshold from digital rules that are specific to the domain associated with the relationship instance; and

looking up the second threshold from the digital rules that are specific to the domain associated with the relationship instance.

8. The computer system of claim 1 in which the operations further include:

receiving a subsequent dataset associated with the domain on behalf of the primary entity, in which the subsequent dataset includes data regarding a follow-up relationship instance associated with the primary entity reversing the relationship instance;

decrementing a first counter responsive to receiving the subsequent dataset;

setting a flag status to false if the first counter no longer meets or exceeds a first threshold;

updating a second counter responsive to and based on a parsed base value of the subsequent dataset, the updating including subtracting an amount from the second counter based on the parsed base value of the subsequent dataset; and

determining that the second counter no longer meets or exceeds a second threshold; and

in response to such determination, setting the flag status to false.

9. The computer system of claim 1 in which the operations further include:

re-setting one or more of: a first counter and a second counter based on a period of time that has passed since a selectable calendar date.

10. The computer system of claim 9 in which the operations further include:

looking up the selectable calendar date from a stored memory entry.

11. The computer system of claim 1 in which the operations further include:

in response to a flag status being set from false to true, transmitting a notification to the client device associated with the seller comprising the primary entity regarding a registration for a client with the domain for remitting resources for relationship instances associated with the domain.

12. The computer system of claim 1 in which the operations further include:

determining whether one or more digital rules about relationship instances associated with the domain indicate to not count a relationship instance for purposes of determining whether a first counter meets or exceeds a first threshold if an exemption is associated with the relationship instance; and

determining whether an exemption is associated with the relationship instance, in which the incrementing the first counter is based on a determination that there is not an exemption associated with the relationship instance.

13. The computer system of claim 1 in which the operations further include:

parsing, from the dataset an identity of the primary entity for the accessing a first counter and the second counter.

14. The computer system of claim 1 in which the operations further include:

parsing, from the dataset the domain associated with the relationship instance for accessing a first counter and a second counter.

Assignments (2)

Continuity (2)

References Cited (168)