Which software should handle your US sales tax and international VAT in 2026?

Quaderno calculates sales tax, VAT and GST on every sale, issues the invoice and credit note in the format each country expects, then groups everything into reports by jurisdiction and rate. That's the raw material for a state return or an EU OSS filing.

Its price list is one of the few that's public. Hobby is 24 a month for 25 transactions and one jurisdiction. From Startup, 41 a month for 250 transactions, users, jurisdictions and integrations become unlimited. Business is 83 for 1,000 transactions, Growth 124 for 2,500. Go over your tier and Quaderno moves you up automatically, so watch volume around launches and holiday sales.

It connects to Stripe, online stores and billing tools, and creates invoices and credit notes from each Stripe payment. Filing is a separate service in more than 50 countries, priced on request.

The limit: Quaderno prepares, it doesn't file by default. One integration trap: with Stripe Link and Checkout, your business customer's VAT number isn't passed through, so a B2B sale can be invoiced with VAT it shouldn't carry. Collect the number another way.

Anrok was built for SaaS. It sits on top of your subscription billing, calculates tax on each invoice, and runs VAT and GST end to end for digital goods and services. Registrations and filings are included in the EU, the UK and Canada. You keep your own payment processor and your customer relationship.

The vendor claims coverage in 100+ countries. Reviews are positive overall, with a useful nuance: users rate its US sales tax module higher than its international VAT module, and the most common complaint is about coverage and readability of VAT reports outside the US.

On price, we stick to "custom quote": the official pricing page couldn't be read during our comparison, and we don't publish figures found elsewhere. Ask exactly what the entry plan covers: markets, included filings, and the cost of each added market.

The limit: physical goods are less mature than digital. If you also ship products, check IOSS and distance sales before committing.

Numeral keeps US sales tax simple: free monitoring, then $75 per return and $150 per registration in every state on the Professional plan. You know what next quarter costs before it starts.

VAT and GST in 90+ countries, plus VAT number validation, sit in the Enterprise plan, priced on request. Small US stores often get pointed to Numeral or TaxJar when Avalara feels like more than they need.

The limit: outside the US, nothing is public, and the international scope only opens at the Enterprise level.

Paddle doesn't help you manage tax, it takes the job because it becomes the seller. That's a merchant of record. Your customer buys from Paddle, which collects tax, tracks deadlines, files returns and remits payment. No US nexus monitoring, no OSS, no local registrations on your side.

Pricing is all-in: 5% + 50¢ per transaction, payments included, no subscription. Paddle says it's built for SaaS, apps, digital products, software and games, with custom pricing for high volume or products under $10.

The math that matters: on a $20 sale, the fixed 50¢ hurts and the fee tops 7%. On a $300 annual plan, it stays just above 5%.

The limit: Paddle decides. Account review takes a few days, and founders report suspended accounts with funds held for 180 days. Rare, but it stops your cash flow when it happens.

Vertex O Series is an enterprise tax engine. It calculates sales, use and VAT on both sales and purchases, with tax content for 19,000 jurisdictions, and connects to ERPs, procurement, ecommerce and billing. It runs on premises, in the cloud (AWS, Oracle Cloud, Azure) or in a hybrid setup.

Vertex also has an SMB line and a SaaS offer, but O Series targets groups on SAP or Oracle. Analysts rank it first for complex international indirect tax.

Pricing is on quote. We don't publish the estimates in circulation: expect an enterprise budget, and treat the ERP integration as a project with its own cost.

The limit: reviewers call it a leader at a premium price. Customization and integration push the bill up, and implementation support has room to improve.

Stripe Tax calculates tax at payment time wherever you're registered, inside Billing, Checkout, Invoicing and Payment Links. Turn it on, list your registrations, and each payment carries the right rate.

Tax Basic costs 0.5% per transaction with no-code integrations, or 50¢ per API transaction with 10 calculations included, then 5¢ each. Tax Complete, on a one-year contract, runs $90, $430, $1,000 or $1,500 a month depending on registrations, transactions and filings included.

What many find out too late: outside the US, Stripe only files the EU non-Union OSS through Ireland, for businesses not established in the EU selling services, and simplified GST/HST in Canada. Not the Union OSS, not IOSS, not physical goods, not B2B. Even then, you pay the tax office yourself and stay liable.

The limit: correct calculation doesn't file a return. Founders describe a heavy fine despite accurate invoices. On WooCommerce, doubled tax and extra cents on tax-inclusive prices have been reported: test a multi-item cart first.

Lemon Squeezy is a merchant of record like Paddle, sized for small teams and creators. It becomes the seller, collects VAT and sales tax, files and remits. Storefront, checkout and license keys live in one tool.

The headline price matches Paddle: 5% + 50¢ per transaction. Watch the extras: the official fee page lists added fees outside the US, for PayPal and for some special cases.

Stripe bought Lemon Squeezy and now pushes its own merchant of record offer. Nothing announces the end of the service, but keep it in mind if you build your business on it.

The limit: like any merchant of record, it controls refunds and can freeze an account. Digital goods only.

Kintsugi charges per action. The free plan watches your exposure, meaning the states and countries where sales approach a threshold, in the US and 100 countries, without filing. Starter charges $75 per action, whether a registration, a return, an amendment or a closure, in the US and Canada.

For EU, UK or global VAT and GST, you need Scale or Premium, priced monthly on quote. So it's North American first, with international filing reserved for larger teams.

Reviews are positive overall, with complaints about inaccurate calculations and support. Worth knowing: Kintsugi publishes many of the roundups ranking for this search, and ranks itself first.

The limit: at $75 an action, the bill climbs fast if you file in several states every month. Run a full-year estimate.

Avalara is the name in every roundup because it covers the most cases. In the US, AvaTax calculates rates across 12,000+ jurisdictions, and Managed Returns prepares, files and pays state returns, including handling notices from the states. Nexus tracking across all 50 states is included in Avalara Select.

US pricing is clear. Core Compliance costs $79 per state per month, or $799 per state per year, with at least three states per entity. In states that are members of the Streamlined Sales Tax agreement (SST), the price drops to $69 per state per month, or $699 a year, with no minimum. The plan targets businesses up to $50M in revenue.

Outside the US, Avalara handles VAT registrations in 70+ countries, EU VAT returns, and acts as IOSS intermediary with a single monthly return for all 27 EU countries. None of that has a public price: ask for a quote country by country.

The limit is the contract. Public reviews are harsh on one point: cancellation refused before the end of a 12-month term, and renewals billed. The product earns respect, support much less so for small companies.