This section provides answers to common questions that users face when creating transactions.

How can I get offline tax rates?

How do I discount a transaction?

Is it normal to see multiple tax entries for one jurisdiction?

This is expected behavior in Avalara’s tax engine. Tax is calculated per line item, and each jurisdiction can apply multiple rates or components depending on the nature of the item, special rules, or thresholds.

We recommend that you don't assume a transaction will contain only one tax entry per jurisdiction. Your integration should be able to handle multiple entries for the same. And never overwrite or discard entries with matching jurisCode or jurisName.

Examples

Phoenix, AZ: Two city-level taxes for the same jurisdiction

In this example, Phoenix city appears twice in the tax details:

One with a 2.8% rate on most of the item value,
Another with a 2.0% rate on a separate portion of the value.

Request:

      "lineAmount": 15000,
	"city": "Phoenix",
	"region": "AZ"

Response:

"details": [
{
      "jurisName": "PHOENIX",
       "rate": 0.028,
	"taxableAmount": 13886,
	"tax": 388.81
   },
   {
	"jurisName": "PHOENIX",
	"rate": 0.02,
	"taxableAmount": 1114,
	"tax": 22.28
   }
]

Note: These examples are partial snippets to illustrate how multiple entries appear. They are not complete API request or response payloads.

These appear as separate line items, even though both are under the same city jurisdiction.

Davidson County, TN: Multiple taxes from the same county

This transaction has two county-level entries for Davidson County, TN:

A general rate of 2.25%
And a special school district tax of 0.5%

Response

"details": [
 {
	"jurisName": "DAVIDSON",
	"taxSubTypeId": "S",
	"rate": 0.0225
	},
	{
	"jurisName": "DAVIDSON",
	"taxSubTypeId": "SS",
	"rate": 0.005
	}
				]

These are distinct tax components and must be reported separately even though they come from the same jurisName.

Tennessee State: Single Article Tax Rule

In Tennessee, high-value items may be subject to different tax treatments on portions of the value. This results in multiple entries for the state jurisdiction:

Response:

"details": [
	{
	"jurisName": "TENNESSEE",
	"rate": 0.07,
	"taxableAmount": 3300
	},
	{
	"jurisName": "TENNESSEE",
	"rate": 0.0275,
	"taxableAmount": 1600,
	"nonTaxableAmount": 1700
	}
]

This reflects the Single Article Rule, where part of the item value is taxed at a reduced rate.

Transaction FAQs