In AvaTax transactions, the entityUseCode field indicates the exempt reason for exempt customers. For example, if the US federal government makes a purchase designated for government use, that purchase would be, in most cases, exempt or nontaxable for that specific use.

You can specify entity use codes at the document level or the line level. When entering transactions with an entity use code, AvaTax will exempt the transaction as long as the code is valid for the customer and the region where the transaction takes place.

In your CRM component, include a field that can identify an exempt customer. Then, when a customer is identified by one of the entity use code exempt reasons, and that customer makes a purchase, include that reason in the CreateTransaction model.

Display entity use codes in your UI as a dropdown, combo box, or selection element. This element uses the ListEntityUseCodes API to retrieve the list of available choices to display. Also allow for a default value of NULL, which indicates that, by default, a transaction doesn’t have a custom entity use code.

Here’s how to find the values and put them into your transaction. First, call the ListEntityUseCodes API. The code field is the value that you'll use, and the field name is the description to display to the customer. You can either show "code - name" like "A - FEDERAL GOV," or you can just show the name field.

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If an exempt customer makes a purchase, put that value in the entityUseCode field on the CreateTransactionModel element:

View example

If the customer isn't exempt, omit the entityUseCode element entirely, or set its value to NULL.

Entity use codes