How to Integrate Kintsugi Sales Tax Automation with Stripe: A Step-by-Step Guide

Are you using Stripe's payment platform for your business and considering adding a sales tax automation tool to pair it with? If you do, you are on the right track because automation is the trend.

Avalara's survey in March 2024 [1] revealed that 52% of respondents were optimistic that sales tax automation solutions could improve their approach to sales tax management. Eighty-four percent (84% )of businesses consider integration the "very important" or "key requirement" for their customers, per The State of SaaS Integrations Report [2].

Kintsugi, one of the popular sales tax automation providers in the market, is the best partner for Stripe payment because it not only calculates accurately but offers seamless integration for the best customer experience. You will learn more in the next section.

Introduction to Kintsugi

Kintsugi is your partner for seamless sales tax automation. The company was founded in 2021, three years following the 2018 Supreme Court ruling requiring internet retailers to collect and remit sales taxes even if they do not have a physical presence. The decision makes managing sales taxes from different jurisdictions challenging, as each has its own rules and regulations. 

Kintsugi was created to help business owners stay compliant by making the process a breeze. Kintsugi will automate your sales tax compliance in three simple steps -- (1) connect and monitor (2) register and collect and (3) remit and file -- and put it on autopilot in three minutes.

Kintsugi wants you to focus on the more significant part of your business -- growing it! Our software helps you track your sales tax nexus and tax liabilities, import your transaction, handle voluntary disclosure agreements (VDAs), and more.

"Achieving compliance is not an activity that is going to generate any revenue but many businesses are spending hundreds of hours each year doing this work," said Kintsugi CEO Pujun Bhatnagar. "Our technology can help them hugely reduce that."

Understanding Sales Tax Automation

Sales tax compliance is very challenging because you've got to consider numerous factors. The number one challenge to most business owners is the complex and ever-changing tax regulations. Doing it manually is also prone to errors. Late filing could lead you to pay penalties and wrong calculations and erroneous information could trigger an audit. 

Additionally, poor recordkeeping will be another issue if you are subjected to an audit. Non-compliance can also taint your business reputation.

You can avoid the stress and anxiety of non-compliance by automating your sales tax. Sales tax automation tools like Kintsugi save time and resources, reduce the cost of compliance by keeping you from potential penalties and charges, improve accuracy by reducing human errors, scale with your business and ensure compliance. 

Key Features of Sales Tax Automation

Sales tax automation has several key features that make compliance a breeze. We will discuss them briefly in this section.

Real-time tax rate calculation

Sales tax automation tools use artificial intelligence (AI) to keep up with the evolving tax laws and regulations, so they use the real-time tax rate for accurate tax calculations, ensuring compliance. This is the most challenging part when doing sales tax compliance manually -- one has to be updated with the ever-changing tax laws and rates, which vary per state. You can check the State Sales tax guide here. 

If you sell in multiple states, tracking tax laws and rates from different jurisdictions can be taxing, not to mention you've got to keep track of the different due dates from different states.

Automatic tax reporting and filing

 Sales tax automation is designed to automate the registration, remittance, and tax filing process. With automation, you can confidently go about your business because sales tax automation software like Kintsugi guarantees your compliance.

Integration with existing financial systems

One of the important features sales tax automation tools offer is integration, which allows you to connect your existing ERP, HR, and e-commerce systems, like Shopify, Stripe, and Quickbooks, to the automation platform. With integration, you can easily connect the various systems you use for your business in one place for a streamlined workflow.

Comprehensive reports

Another advantage of sales tax automation is its detailed reporting and analysis. Sales tax automation software automatically generates reports of every transaction liability and payment history. The dashboards are also customizable, so you can view and analyze the data for strategic decision-making.

It will also keep all the tax exemption certificates and other documents necessary for your compliance in one place for easy access. This will prove helpful during audits.

Why Choose Kintsugi for Sales Tax Automation

Kintsugi is the best sales tax automation provider for Stripe users because it delivers and offers many free services for those who don't want to pay but want to enjoy automation. Kintsugi's Starter plan is accessible for $0 and offers free address validations, sales tax nexus calculations, sales tax liability calculations, exposure monitoring, and risk assessments. 

The Growth plan is best for companies filing in 10 states or fewer. However, the Premium plan is customizable and is highly recommended for companies operating in over 10 states or with a wider presence as it offers autopilot filing, 24/7 Slack support and SLAs, error insurance, SSO  and advanced reporting, vda, unlimited TaxGPT questions, and more.

Aside from transparent pricing, Kintsugi is designed to be intuitive and offers fast and easy onboarding and seamless integration. It calculates tax accurately and has responsive customer support.

Does Stripe Automatically Collect Sales Tax?

Stripe offers financial services and is one of the best online payment processors due to its flexibility. It allows merchants to accept various payment methods, including credit and debit cards, digital wallets, and bank transfers.

It also offers other services like billing, invoicing, fraud prevention, revenue recognition, custom reports, etc. Stripe Tax is designed to automate sales tax, value-added tax (VAT), and services tax (GST) for businesses that use Stripe payment.

Stripe Tax works like Kintsugi, except that the latter offers more free services and has the most effortless onboarding and seamless integration you will ever experience. 

Why Integrate Kintsugi with Stripe?

Kintsugi and Stripe, when used together, offer several advantages to one's business. Kintsugi is the answer for merchants selling in multiple ecommerce marketplaces who use Stripe payment and are seeking an efficient and accurate sales tax management solution.

Here are some reasons why you should use Kintsugi and integrate it with Stripe.

Benefits of Kintsugi and Stripe Partnership

Seamless sales tax automation. The tool does not automatically collect and file sales taxes for business owners using Stripe. With Kintsugi, you will enjoy smooth and secure sales tax compliance because our tool does everything for you, from monitoring nexus, registration, collection, calculation, filing, and remittance.

Easy onboarding and integration. One of the great things Kintsugi offers its users is the best customer experience, from effortless onboarding to trouble-free integration. With just a click, you can connect Kintsugi to your Stripe account and enjoy seamless sales tax automation.

Enhanced customer satisfaction. Customers will feel more confident doing business with you because Kintsugi exercises solid security measures and demonstrates transparency, boosting your brand's reputation and customer trust.

Integrating Stripe with Kintsugi: Step-by-Step Integration Guide

Kintsugi's no-code integration makes it easy for Stripe users to use our sales tax automation tool. However, there are some things to consider. In this section, you'll learn everything you need to integrate Stripe with Kintsugi.

Prerequisite for Integration

Kintsugi requires that you use Stripe Invoices instead of Stripe Payments. Stripe has a dedicated page for Stripe Invoicing, where you will find everything you need to learn about it.

Step-by-step integration process

You can integrate Stripe into your Kintsugi account in five easy steps.

1. Log in to your Stripe account and go to Developers.
2. Click the API keys tab and press 'Secret Key' or use an existing one. Keep a record of the 'Publishable Key' and 'Secret Key.'
3. Log in to your Kintsugi account and go to 'Data Sources.'
4. Click the 'Browse Integrations' button to see all the ERP, HR, and ecommerce systems the Kintsugi platform supports.
5. Look for Stripe and press the 'Connect' button.
6. Enter your 'Stripe Publishable Key' and 'Stripe Secret Key' and press 'Save.' You will receive a confirmation message after a successful connection. To ensure that the integration is done, check the 'Data Sources' page of your Kintsugi account, then go to the 'Manage Integrations' section. You should see your Stripe account on the list.

Conclusion

Stripe doesn't collect taxes automatically, but Kintsugi does. It's one of the trusted sales tax automation tools in the market. Pairing Stripe with Kintsugi is the best decision you could make for business' efficiency. And there's nothing to worry about because Kintsugi's no-code integration will make the whole experience a breeze. 

So, book a demo now or sign up for free.

 

Sources

[1] Avalara March 2024 Survey. https://newsroom.avalara.com/2024-03-26-Avalara-Survey-Finds-Businesses-Are-Turning-to-Automation-to-Manage-Tax-on-Purchases

[2]. The State of SaaS Integrations Report