Hi Steven, There are improvements, but they still require a subscription service for the rates. Depending on the complexity of your business, I generally suggest an ISV such as the ones you mention or CCH. I have worked with all three over many years and each have their pros and cons so make sure you flush out requirements as much as possible.
Biggest elements of complexity:
** In how many states do you have nexus or SHOULD have nexus?
** Is the product or service you sell generally taxable? i.e. is it a tangible product? Services are generally not taxable although there are always exceptions (which is typically a main driver for an ISV).
** Do many of your customers have exemptions? Managing them effectively requires effort and can help justify an ISV for risk avoidance. D365 exemptions are universal for all regions, while ISVs can be jurisdiction specific.
** Do your customers have different ship to addresses? D365 customer exemption will apply the same to all of them.
** If the product you sell is tangible, can you ship it anywhere in the country, like an e-commerce business or do you only have a specific list of zip codes you sell into? There are 50,000+ jurisdictions
** Do you purchase inventory for resale? If yes, then you probably have vendor exemptions to provide and D365 can not distinguish which jurisdiction your exemption relates to like an ISV
** Are you a manufacturer with partial exemptions, e.g. 50% of machinery in some jurisdictions. I am not aware of a way for D365 to handle this.
** Do you have many locations where you are purchasing goods for internal use, especially within the same legal entity? D365 only allows for one rate per product or category per legal entity, so it may not be correct for all locations.
Hope this helps. Happy to hear of other opinions, but this is what I have found.
Best regards,
Gabor
PS: I am not a tax expert, but I do have several successful tax ISV implementations under my belt and am currently supporting my 2nd standard config with numerous legal entities.