TaxCloud’s Taxability Information Codes (TICs) ensure accurate item tax tracking

TaxCloud uses what we refer to as Taxability Information Codes (TICs) to keep track of items (technically, categories of items) that are tax-exempt in certain states. TaxCloud’s TIC merchandise classification hierarchy is based upon the standard definitions established by the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement (SSUTA).

TICs are 5-digit codes you assign to your products that may receive special tax treatment. For example, many states apply special sales tax rates to “essential goods,” items like food, clothing, and medicine. The general default TIC for items that do not get special treatment is “00000.” If you know that your products receive special tax treatment, please click the following link to explore our tax categories and taxability codes: https://app.taxcloud.com/tic

If you do not see a code that fits your product, then the chances are it is taxable, and you should use our General/Uncategorized Goods TIC “000000.” However, if you are certain a particular category should be exempt and TaxCloud is not reflecting that exemption, you should notify our TaxCloud support team. To investigate the expected tax treatment, you will need to provide our support team with a statutory citation from your state. Our tax team will then do research sufficient to determine if TaxCloud already has a TIC to satisfy the identified exemption, or, if necessary, initiate research in all other jurisdictions in order to create a new TIC code for the category or fact pattern cited.

Many states apply special sales tax rates to “essential goods,” items like food, clothing, and medicine.

How does this work with my shopping cart?

When your shopping cart requests the sales tax from TaxCloud, the order information should automatically include a TIC with the request. TaxCloud will respond with the correct sales tax amount due based upon the provided TIC.

Important note for developers

TICs and their associated definitions are updated regularly by the states. Do not download and retain these codes as static resources in your local, test, or deploy environment. The complete current TIC list is always available for automated inclusion through various real-time feed formats, including JSON, TEXT, XML, and CSV.

For additional developer resources, please visit TaxCloud’s developer portal at https://app.taxcloud.com/developer.

Press Contact

TaxCloud:
Patrick Riley
Vice President, Business Development
+1 203-803-2048
priley@taxcloud.com