FT – Frequently Asked Questions

Our newest operation, GetBestMatch would be the recommended operation. It integrates the behavior of two deprecated operations, GetTaxInfoByAddress and GetTaxInfoByZip_V2. The GetBestMatch operation will first try to validate an address and find an applicable tax rate for it. If an address level tax rate cannot be found, the operation will then use the City, State and Zip Code inputs to provide a less granular match of tax rates.

Most of the time we can fill in the city and county information for a request. There are certain cases where an input address may be bad and as such we cannot reliably fill in the city and/or county names for a certain request. This occurs most frequently in Zip level matches, and occasionally in certain Address Level matches. We are currently working on adding a field to the InformationComponents field that will allow us to provide a best guess at the applicable City or County name and still preserve the accuracy of the tax rate information that is returned.

When the GetCanadianTaxInfoByProvince operation was created, neither QST or RST existed as they do now. They were known as PST. The reality is that they still act the same as PST, they just have a more personalized name. While Service Objects continues to accurately update the Canadian tax rates anytime changes are needed, we have not created the new operation that would be needed to accurately display the new sales tax names for Quebec and Manitoba. Service Objects will never change the name of an existing output name as that would likely break the integrations of many of our clients.

Users looking up tax rates for Quebec and Manitoba can still get accurate rates by combining the values of with . While we did initially intend to mean PST, it can now instead be read as the tax rate for the Province which encompasses PST, QST and RST.

Potentially, yes! GetBestMatch has a field called “InformationComponents” this field returns an array of key-value pairs that allow us to add new fields to the service without risking the possibility of breaking current integrations with the service. Please reach out to us at support@serviceobjects.com and we would be happy to look into updating the service to meet your needs.

When we need to enhance our service that includes the changing of either the input or output interfaces, its best to create a new operation. If we change the interface of an existing operation, we potentially adversely affect hundreds of current customers.

If you are a new client or in a position to make a change, it is usually always best to switch to the new operation as it likely has important new enhancements.

Currently, DOTS FastTax only supports general sales and use tax. There are no current plans to add other datasets/sources.