Understand quoting

As indicated earlier, AvaTax uses the Avalara Cross-Border Estimated feature to calculate or quote customs duties and import taxes for a product when tariff code information is incomplete, incorrect, or missing.

In order for AvaTax to assign a tariff code to your item when you don’t have an HS code, include the following in each line of your transaction:

Product category: This is the full breadcrumb path to the category where the item is included. Categories should be separated by “ > “. Multiple category paths per item are accepted. In this case, category paths should be separated by “;”. This is required to estimate customs duty.
Product description: A human readable item description. This is required to estimate customs duty.
Product summary: A longer description of the product.

Notice

Be sure to include the product category and description. Avalara can't assign a tariff code if your transaction is missing product category information. Include a product summary for more accurate results.

Example quote request

{
  "lines": [
    {
      "number": "1",
      "quantity": 1,
      "amount": 4500,
      "taxCode": "P0000000",
      "hsCode":"",
      "description": "Very Long cotton dress",
      "summary": "",
      "category": "Clothing &gt; For Women &gt; Dresses;Clothing &gt; Girl &gt; Dresses"
    }
  ],
  "type": "SalesOrder",
  "companyCode": "DEFAULT",
  "date": "2021-07-23",
  "customerCode": "ABC",
  "purchaseOrderNo": "2021016001",
  "addresses": {
    "shipFrom": {
      "line1": "9 McKinnon Ave",
      "city": "georgetown",
      "region": "ON",
      "country": "CA",
      "postalCode": "L7G 5H6"
    },
    "shipTo": {
      "line1": "",
      "city": "",
      "region": "",
      "country": "MX",
      "postalCode": ""
    }
  },
  "IsSellerImporterOfRecord": true,
  "commit": false,
  "currencyCode": "MXN",
  "description": "Yarn",
  "debugLevel":"diagnostic"
}

Example quote response

...
  "summary": [
        {
            "country": "MX",
            "region": "MX",
            "jurisType": "Country",
            "jurisCode": "MX",
            "jurisName": "MEXICO",
            "taxAuthorityType": 45,
            "stateAssignedNo": "",
            "taxType": "LandedCost",
            "taxSubType": "ImportDuty",
            "taxName": "MX LandedCost",
            "rateType": "Standard",
            "taxable": 1000.0,
            "rate": 0.150000,
            "tax": 150.0,
            "taxCalculated": 150.0,
            "nonTaxable": 0.0,
            "exemption": 0.0
        },
        {
            "country": "MX",
            "region": "MX",
            "jurisType": "Country",
            "jurisCode": "MX",
            "jurisName": "MEXICO",
            "taxAuthorityType": 45,
            "stateAssignedNo": "",
            "taxType": "Output",
            "taxSubType": "O",
            "taxName": "Standard Rate",
            "rateType": "Standard",
            "taxable": 3650.0,
            "rate": 0.160000,
            "tax": 584.0,
            "taxCalculated": 584.0,
            "nonTaxable": 0.0,
            "exemption": 0.0
        },
  "nonPassthroughDetails": [],
            "hsCode": "6209200709",
            "costInsuranceFreight": 3000.0,
            "vatCode": "",
            "vatNumberTypeId": 0,
            "category": "Clothing &gt; For Women &gt; Dresses;Clothing &gt; Girl &gt; Dresses",
            "summary": ""
        }
    ],
...