Documentation
Learn how our sales tax data can help power your application.
Introduction
By providing as little as a zip code, we can determine the sales tax rates for your customers in their specific geographical area. In most states, sales tax rates change many times throughout the year. Our service provides you with a method to get this information quickly and easily and with no maintenance. The ZipTax team is dedicated to providing you with the critical up-to-date information you need so you can focus on the important parts of your business.
Our Zip-Tax.com API is designed to allow programmers to submit a request to our servers from a website or application and retrieve response data from our databases. The format of the response can be returned as JSON or XML. Simply pass the desired format as part of the request. Zip-Tax.com works by submitting geographic information such as city, state, and zip code from your application or website. This data is used determine the correct sales tax information matching the provided location. Our service then returns that information to your application or website.
Getting Started
The Zip-Tax.com sales tax API uses standard Representational State Transfer (REST) principles for maximum flexibility with a wide range of program languages.
To get started, simply follow this documentation to build a reuqest using the Zip-Tax.com Request URL, parse the API Response to validate the response codes, and use the API results in your application.
For questions or comments about this documentation, please contact us at support@zip-tax.com.
API Subscription Types
Core Level API
The general Zip-Tax.com sales tax API allows jurisdiction lookups using any combination of zip code, city, and state. This API level does not provide full address level lookup and only provides county data via response. For full address level lookups, please see the Geo API section below. Note when using this method, multiple response values may be returned where multiple tax jurisdictions match the query inputs.
Geo Level API (address level)
The GEO API version of Zip-Tax.com allows queries with full address lookup. This method returns only a single response with the corresponding sales tax jurisdiction data. This is the recommended subscription type for use with our API.
Request
The API request URL is used to form your request to the API from your application.
The base request URL consists of three parts.
| Subdomain | Action | Version |
|---|---|---|
| api.zip-tax.com | /request | /v40 |
HTTP Request Base URL Example
curl --header "Accept:application/json" https://api.zip-tax.com/request/v40
Core Plan Level API Request
Query Parameters
| Parameter | Required? | Description |
|---|---|---|
| key | yes | Your API key |
| postalcode | yes | U.S. jurisdiction postal code (zip code) |
| state | optional | two letter state code i.e. CA = California |
| city | optional | full city name |
| format | optional | Default = json or specify xml |
Core Plan Request Example
curl --header "Accept:application/json" https://api.zip-tax.com/request/v40?key=1234567890&postalcode=90264
Geo Plan Level API Request
The Geo API requires an active GEO subscription. The API supports valid U.S addresses passed in as a single parameter, or split into multiple address parameters.
Note: The address parameter takes precedence. If present, the values of street, city, postalcode, and state are ignored.
Query Parameters
| Parameter | Required? | Description |
|---|---|---|
| key | yes | Your API key |
| address | yes | Full U.S. street level address |
Note: Geo API customer may also use query parameters from the General API section.
Geo Plan Request Example
curl --header "Accept:application/json" https://api.zip-tax.com/request/v40?
key=1234567890&address=1111%20S%20Figueroa%20St,%20Los%20Angeles,%20CA%2090015
Response Results
| Name | Description | Version |
|---|---|---|
| geoPostalCode | Requested postal code | all |
| geoCity | City | all |
| geoCounty | County | all |
| geoState | State | all |
| taxSales | Total sales tax | all |
| taxUse | Total use tax | all |
| txbService | Taxable service (values: null,Y,N,L) | all |
| txbFreight | Taxable freight (values: null,Y,N) | all |
| stateSalesTax | Portion of total sales tax from the state level | v20+ only |
| stateUseTax | Portion of total use tax from the state level | v20+ only |
| citySalesTax | CePortion of total sales tax from the city level | v20+ only |
| cityUseTax | Portion of total use tax from the city level | v20+ only |
| cityTaxCode | Applicable city tax code | v20+ only |
| countySalesTax | Portion of total sales tax from the county level | v20+ only |
| countyUseTax | Portion of total use tax from the county level | v20+ only |
| countyTaxCode | Applicable county tax code | v20+ only |
| districtSalesTax | Portion of total sales tax from the district level | v20+ only |
| districtUseTax | Portion of total use tax from the district level | v20+ only |
| district1Code | District 1 tax code | v40+ only |
| district1SalesTax | Portion of total sales tax from district 1 level | v40+ only |
| district1UseTax | Portion of total use tax from district 1 level | v40+ only |
| district2Code | District 2 tax code | v40+ only |
| district2SalesTax | Portion of total sales tax from district 2 level | v40+ only |
| district2UseTax | Portion of total use tax from district 2 level | v40+ only |
| district3Code | District 3 tax code | v40+ only |
| district3SalesTax | Portion of total sales tax from district 3 level | v40+ only |
| district3UseTax | Portion of total use tax from district 3 level | v40+ only |
| district4Code | District 4 tax code | v40+ only |
| district4SalesTax | Portion of total sales tax from district 4 level | v40+ only |
| district4UseTax | Portion of total use tax from district 4 level | v40+ only |
| district5Code | District 5 tax code | v40+ only |
| district5SalesTax | Portion of total sales tax from district 5 level | v40+ only |
| district5UseTax | Portion of total use tax from district 5 level | v40+ only |
| originDestination | Location where a sale is taxed origin/destination (values: null,D,O) | v40+ only |
Sample JSON Response
{
"version": "v40",
"rCode": 100,
"results": [
{
"geoPostalCode": "90264",
"geoCity": "MALIBU",
"geoCounty": "LOS ANGELES",
"geoState": "CA",
"taxSales": 0.095,
"taxUse": 0.095,
"txbService": "N",
"txbFreight": "N",
"stateSalesTax": 0.06,
"stateUseTax": 0.06,
"citySalesTax": 0,
"cityUseTax": 0,
"cityTaxCode": "",
"countySalesTax": 0.0025,
"countyUseTax": 0.0025,
"countyTaxCode": "19",
"districtSalesTax": 0.0325,
"districtUseTax": 0.0325,
"district1Code": "218",
"district1SalesTax": 0,
"district1UseTax": 0,
"district2Code": "594",
"district2SalesTax": 0.0225,
"district2UseTax": 0.0225,
"district3Code": "",
"district3SalesTax": 0,
"district3UseTax": 0,
"district4Code": "19",
"district4SalesTax": 0.01,
"district4UseTax": 0.01,
"district5Code": "",
"district5SalesTax": 0,
"district5UseTax": 0,
"originDestination": "D"
}
]
}
Response Codes
The Zip-Tax.com API returns the following response codes based on request results.
| Code | Reason | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | SUCCESS | Successful API Requet |
| 101 | INVALID_KEY | Key format is not valid |
| 102 | INVALID_STATE | State format is not valid |
| 103 | INVALID_CITY | City format is not valid |
| 104 | INVALID_POSTAL_CODE | Postal code format is not valid |
| 105 | INVALID_FORMAT | Query string format is not valid |
| 106 | API_ERROR | Api error |
| 107 | FEATURE_NOT_ENABLED | Requested feature or version not enabled |
| 108 | REQUEST_LIMIT_MET | Api request limit met |
| 109 | ADDRESS_INCOMPLETE | Missing address parameters |
| 110 | NO_RESULT | Query returned no result set |
Support
For questions or comments please contact us via email at: support@zip.tax