One of Durango’s fastest-growing businesses just landed a major contract to build the website that businesses will use to pay their Colorado state sales and use taxes.
A year ago, MUNIRevs had 15 employees and contracted workers compared with 40 today, said Erin Neer, who formed MUNIRevs in 2011, initially in her home in Dolores after working for a decade as finance director for Mountain Village. The firm is currently located at 1040 Main Ave. in second-floor office space on the block with Carver Brewing Co.
The website will be the central nexus where a business can pay state sales and use taxes as well as local taxes from municipalities, counties and other taxing districts.
“We’re really excited to bring our efficient and simple solutions to taxing jurisdictions and businesses in the state. We bill our sites as easiest as possible to use, and we really try to do that,” Neer said.
The first stage of the development process will focus on creating a web-based portal that integrates existing state systems for licensing and development of standards and brings in local jurisdictions for tax payments.
Eventually, tax-paying entities will be able to look up the tax rate of any taxing jurisdiction in the state for remittance of sales and use taxes.
The goal is to bring the website live by June 1.
“It’s a manual process for the business community to assess where taxes need to be remitted. A single online portal will streamline and simplify the complex state and local tax system,” state Sen. Jack Tate, R-Centennial, said in a news release issued by the Department of Revenue in announcing the contract with MUNIRevs.
The contract calls for MUNIRevs to provide the tax-collecting website for three years. Neer and the Department of Revenue declined to disclose the amount the state will pay MUNIRevs. The state did not respond to an open records request seeking the amount.
Neer said the contract is among the bigger ones her firm has landed. She said MUNIRevs and its related LODGINGRevs product, which collects lodgers tax revenues, currently have 50 clients across the country.
The contracts include tax-collecting websites for all incorporated cities in Alaska and the city of Dallas.
Additionally, Orem, Utah, recently signed a contract with LODGINGRevs to collect lodgers taxes, and the city of Eugene, Oregon, recently signed a contract for MUNIRevs to develop software to collect taxes based on employee head counts.
MUNIRevs is the system of record for sales tax collections for 35% of the cities in Colorado, including Montrose, Carbondale, Mountain Village, Telluride, Carbondale, Avon, Vail and Aspen.
It also serves bigger Front Range cities, including Sheridan, Englewood and Commerce City, but it has yet to sign a contract with the city of Durango.
parmijo@durangoherald.com
