# Avalara AvaTax (slim)

> Avalara AvaTax calculates sales tax, VAT and GST for a transaction and records it for reporting. Agents reach it through the AvaTax REST v2 API or a hosted MCP server, with separate Avalara products for returns, exemption certificates and e-invoicing.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/avalara.md (~7,850 tokens) · this version ~1,980 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/avalara.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/avalara
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-08

**B · 68.8/100 · rank #162 of 629 · #1 in Tax calculation & compliance · not agent-ready · confidence medium**


Assessment: The REST API has a public Swagger file with 491 operations, a Markdown page per endpoint and a 90-day trial with no card. Production rate limits and prices per transaction are not published, the API patch notes stop at April 2023, and the tax calculation service was degraded for about 23 hours on 5 and 6 October 2026.

## Facts

- Kind: HTTP API · vendor: Avalara, Inc. · category: Tax calculation & compliance · legal entity: Avalara, Inc. · provenance 88/100
- Endpoint: `https://rest.avatax.com/api/v2` (HTTP, Streamable HTTP)
- Auth: OAuth or key · pricing: Paid · x402: no · licence: Proprietary service under the Avalara Service Terms. The SDKs on GitHub are Apache-2.0. The MCP repository holds a README only, with no licence file
- Probe metrics: not measured yet (probes haven't run)
- Surface graded: AvaTax REST v2 API at https://rest.avatax.com/api/v2 (sandbox https://sandbox-rest.avatax.com) and the hosted AvaTax MCP server at https://mcp.avalara.com/avatax (sandbox https://mcp.sbx.avalara.com/avatax)
- API size: Swagger 2.0, 491 operations on 352 paths under 51 tags, 635 models. Production reported version 26.9.2 and the sandbox spec 26.10.0 on 8 October 2026
- MCP tools: calculate_tax, get_transaction, get_transactions, get_nexus_definitions, get_nexus, create_nexus, get_companies, get_tax_code_definitions, get_tax_code_recommendations, validate_address
- Other Avalara MCP servers: Returns, E-Invoicing and Live Reporting, Exemption Certificate Management, Cross-Border, Classification, Tax Content, Business Licensing and developer docs, each at https://mcp.avalara.com/<name>
- Credentials: MCP by OAuth with the scope avalara_mcp. REST by HTTP Basic (username and password, or account ID and licence key) or a bearer token. Permissions follow the user's security role
- Trial: 90 days, no card, 5 orders and 5 invoices a minute, 1,000 transactions a day, test data only, no warranty or support, data may be deleted at the end
- Rate limits: Trial limits as above and 5 calls a minute on report exports. No production limits with numbers found. Errors RateLimitExceededError, RequestLimitExceeded and ConcurrentRequestLimitExceeded are documented
- Retries: No idempotency key. CreateOrAdjustTransaction creates or adjusts by transaction code and is the documented retry after a timeout. `$include=ForceTimeout` simulates a 30-second timeout for testing
- Paging and filtering: `$top`, `$skip`, `$filter` and `$orderBy` on 152 of 262 GET operations, 1,000 records at most per call, `@nextLink` in results. `$include` selects nested data, with SummaryOnly and LinesOnly to shrink responses
- SDKs: C#, Java, JavaScript (npm avatax 26.9.0), Python (PyPI Avalara 26.9.0), PHP and Ruby, Apache-2.0, tagged monthly, latest 16 September 2026
- Audit: GET /api/v2/accounts/{id}/audit returns API calls that ended in an error, one hour at a time. Audit log reports export through /api/v2/reports/exportauditlogs. Calls made with a licence key are logged against a key user, not a person
- Availability terms: Commercially reasonable efforts to be available 24 hours a day, 7 days' notice of planned downtime, status updates at status.avalara.com. No uptime percentage in the Service Terms. The product page claims 99.99 per cent uptime
- Data: DPA version 1.10 (2 June 2025). Customer data is retrievable for 10 days after termination and destroyed on request up to 60 days after, backups and legally required records excepted. Subprocessor list version 11.0 (9 September 2026) with countries
- Certifications: AvaTax is listed with SOC 1 Type 2, SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001 on trust.avalara.com. Vulnerability disclosure programme with a hall of fame. No security.txt
- Prices: Core Compliance (AvaTax and managed returns) $79 per month (plan); Core Compliance + SST Services $69 per month (plan); AvaTax free trial free per month (plan)

- Scores: Reliability 62, Performance pending, Schema & documentation 85, Agent ergonomics 84, Security & auth 65, Payments & pricing 30, Task success pending, Maintenance & community 79, Transparency & trust 79 · total over the 7 assessed categories
- Why: Reliability, Graded as a hosted service. · Schema & documentation, Public Swagger 2.0 file at sandbox-rest.avatax.com/swagger/v2/swagger.json with 491 operations and 635 models. · Agent ergonomics, The MCP server documents ten tools. · Security & auth, The MCP server uses OAuth with PKCE and a single scope, avalara_mcp. · Payments & pricing, No x402, MPP or L402 in the developer docs, API reference or pricing page (0). · Maintenance & community, Production answered as version 26.9.2 and the sandbox spec as 26.10.0 on 8 October 2026. The JavaScript and Python SDKs were tagged 26.9.0 o… · Transparency & trust, Closed service with versioned terms that keep every past version online (Service Terms 7.1, effective 1 October 2026, and AvaTax supplementa…
- Sources: 27, open questions: 8, both in the full twin
- Capabilities: tax.calculate, tax.transactions, tax.exemptions, tax.filing, tax.invoicing
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/avalara.json
- Verify (for the vendor): the badge `https://www.anchorterminal.com/badges/avalara.svg` or a link to https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/avalara from a page on avalara.com or one of its subdomains, or the README of github.com/avadev/mcp, then `POST https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/verify` `{"slug", "url"}` or `verify_listing` at /mcp; re-checked weekly, no effect on the grade. Snippets in the full twin.

## Before you call it

1. Omit `type` or send SalesOrder for an estimate. A type ending in Invoice is recorded, and `commit` set to true locks it for reporting
2. Retry a timed-out invoice with CreateOrAdjustTransaction, not CreateTransaction, which errors when a committed transaction has the same code
3. Use sandbox-rest.avatax.com with sandbox credentials for tests. Production is rest.avatax.com and the two accounts are separate
4. Add `$include=SummaryOnly` or LinesOnly to shrink transaction responses, and page lists with `$top` (1,000 at most) and `$skip`
5. Call /api/v2/utilities/ping first. It answers without credentials and shows whether the credentials sent were accepted

## Connect

```bash
npm install avatax
```

```bash
curl -X POST "https://sandbox-rest.avatax.com/api/v2/transactions/create" \
  -H "Authorization: Basic <credentials>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Accept: application/json" \
  -d @transaction.json
```
Full config and headless snippets are in the full page. Through letme (picks today, calling later): https://letme.dev/avalara

## Similar tools

| Tool | Grade | Score | Shared capabilities | Slim |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Anrok | C | 61.6 | tax.calculate, tax.transactions, tax.exemptions, tax.filing | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/anrok.min.md |
| Vertex O Series | C | 54.7 | tax.calculate, tax.transactions, tax.exemptions, tax.invoicing | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/vertex-tax.min.md |
| Quaderno | C | 59.5 | tax.calculate, tax.transactions, tax.invoicing | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/quaderno.min.md |
| TaxJar | C | 57.6 | tax.calculate, tax.transactions, tax.exemptions | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/taxjar.min.md |


## Panel reviews (0, desk reviews from public material, no calls made)