Avalara, a provider of tax compliance software, has expanded its operations and strategic initiatives in Brazil in a time of economic uncertainty.
Through acquisition and organic growth, the company has increased its Brazilian leadership team and customer base, and extended its product offering. Now Avalara offers full-service SaaS in the country, providing all tax compliance requirements for companies conducting business in Brazil.
The Brazilian economy today is in flux following the recent impeachment of former President Dilma Rousseff. The country already has notably complex tax compliance and governmental reporting requirements. A 2015 PwC report found that the annual tax compliance burden for doing business in Brazil is approximately 2,600 hours, eight times greater than for the United States or the European Union. This presents an opportunity for tax compliance solutions such as Avalara’s to thrive.
Avalara Brazil offers a cloud-based software platform and professional services to enhance governance, minimize tax risk, automate fiscal operations and ensure correct compliance in Brazil.
“Avalara is delighted to grow our presence in Brazil, the largest economy in Latin America and the ninth largest in the world,” said Scott McFarlane, Avalara co-founder and CEO, in a statement. “Today’s news affirms our commitment to global expansion into one of the top 10 economies in the world, and a market with enormous unmet need. We now have an excellent leadership team in place, and we look forward to serving the millions of companies doing business in Brazil by helping them automate the burden of transactional tax compliance.”
New heads of Latin America, Brazil named
Avalara has named Rodrigo Zerlotti as general manager, Latin America, and Carlos “Kazuo” Tomomitsu as general manager, Brazil. Zerlotti has more than 25 years of technology and tax experience, including 15 years in Brazil as founder and CEO of SuitePlus, responsible for the ERP localization of NetSuite; and founder of Rezolve, a cloud technology company. In the United States, he held senior technology roles at University of Texas - Austin, Radian International, and other Austin-based hi-tech startups. Zerlotti will lead Avalara’s expansion into Latin America.
Kazuo has more than 30 years of experience in finance and tax automation. Before founding his own tax technology company, KeepTrue, he led the business application division of Sonda IT, one of Brazil’s largest systems integrators, where he directed the first SAP localization project in Brazil. Kazuo will direct Avalara Brazil’s product, marketing, sales and support activities for a growing list of more than 400 customers.
