On This Page

Calculating US and Canadian Tax

To receive the most accurate tax calculation, you will need specific information for the field values. Follow these steps to determine the values for the fields.

IMPORTANT

One tax service request should not include more than 50 line items. When you send a request with more than 50 line items, the request could time out.

The Tax Calculation Service uses line-level rounding. Tax amounts for each jurisdictional detail will be rounded and then aggregated to the line. For example, 8.5% total tax that includes 1.25% city tax, 1.25% county tax, and 6% state tax, levied on a 10.00 item would result in a total tax of 0.86 based on amounts of 0.13 city tax, 0.13 county tax, and 0.60 state tax.

Step 1: Nexus

Identify the location of your company’s nexus. Products are taxable only when the customer’s

orderInformation.shipTo.administrativeArea

field value matches a state or province in which your company has nexus. If the ship to fields are not included in the request, the service will use the bill to fields to determine the tax amount. Use the

taxInformation.nexus

field to list the states or provinces in which your company has nexus. Alternatively, you can use the

taxInformation.noNexus

field to list states that should not be taxed.

IMPORTANT

You cannot combine the

taxInformation.nexus

and

taxInformation.noNexus

fields in the same request.

When you do not specify your nexus locations, the tax calculation service processes your request as if every state or province is taxable.

When you do not specify your nexus locations, or when a value of the nexus field matches the value for the

orderInformation.shipTo.administrativeArea

field, the service calculates the applicable tax for the product.

When the value for the

orderInformation.shipTo.administrativeArea

field does not match any state or province where you have nexus, the service assigns zero tax.

For more information, see Tax Nexus.

Step 2: Product Codes

If the product has special tax considerations, you can provide the appropriate tax product code in the

orderInformation.lineItems.productCode

field in the request.

For more information, see Product Codes.

Step 3: Addresses

To receive the most accurate tax calculation possible, include the following address information in the request:

Ship-to address, in fields in the

orderInformation.shipTo

object. When multiple cities are within a postal code area, the optional request field

orderInformation.shipTo.locality

value improves the accuracy of the calculated tax.

Ship-from address, in fields in the

orderInformation.shipFrom

object.

Point-of-order acceptance, in fields in the

orderInformation.orderAcceptance

object.

Point-of-order origin, in fields in the

orderInformation.orderOrigin

object.

Product code, in the

orderInformation.lineItems.productCode

field.

Nexus, in the

taxInformation.nexus

field—or if it is easier, you can use the

taxInformation.noNexus

field to provide a list of states in which you do not have nexus.

When the tax calculation service succeeds, the response includes the

orderInformation.amountDetails.totalAmount

field.

When the optional request-level field

taxInformation.showTaxPerLineItem

is set to

yes

, the response also includes the following fields for each offer:

orderInformation.taxDetails.type

with the value of

city

country

county

special

, or

state

orderInformation.lineItems.jurisdiction

object fields that provide detailed tax information.

For more address-related information, see Address Requirement.

Step 4: When to Calculate Tax

Determine when you will provide tax calculations during the customer transaction. Tax calculation can occur before or after determining the final order total. See Tax Reporting to know how this service can impact when you would want to request the tax service.

For more information, see When to Calculate Taxes.

Endpoint

POST https://api.cybersource.com/vas/v2/tax