Product Rules

Product Codes

Map natural language product descriptions to Taxability Information Codes (TICs).

Ziptax offers two endpoints for mapping product descriptions to Taxability Information Codes (TICs):

  • Product Code Search — returns a ranked list of all applicable TICs matching a natural language description, each with a relevance score.
  • Product Code Recommendation — uses the same natural language input, plus an AI-powered model, to return the single best TIC match for your product.

Use Search when you want to present multiple options (e.g. in a merchant-facing UI). Use Recommendation when you want the system to pick the best TIC automatically.

The Product Code Search endpoint returns a ranked list of all applicable Product Codes (TICs) that match a natural language product description. Each result includes a relevance score so you can surface the best matches in your application.

Endpoint

Header Parameters

X-API-KEY
stringRequired

Your Ziptax API key.

Body Parameters

query
stringRequired

A full-text product description. The API returns all applicable product codes matching this description, ranked by relevance.

Example

$curl -X POST https://api.zip-tax.com/search/tic \
>  -H "X-API-KEY: YOUR_API_KEY" \
>  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
>  -d '{
>    "query": "baked bread in plastic packaging"
>  }'

Example Response

1{
2  "$schema": "https://api.zip-tax.com/schemas/ticsearch",
3  "nextCursor": "eyJxdWVyeV9oYXNoIjoiYmFrZWQtYnJlYWQtaW4tcGxhc3RpYy1wYWNrYWdpbmciLCJvZmZzZXQiOjEwfQ==",
4  "query": "baked bread in plastic packaging",
5  "results": [
6    {
7      "ticId": 41030,
8      "label": "Bakery Items",
9      "naturalLabel": "Bakery Items",
10      "description": "Bakery items sold without eating utensils provided by the seller, including bread, rolls, buns, biscuits, bagels, croissants, pastries, donuts, Danish, cakes, tortes, pies, tarts, muffins, bars, cookies, tortillas ",
11      "documentation": "Bakery items sold without eating utensils provided by the seller, including bread, rolls, buns, biscuits, bagels, croissants, pastries, donuts, Danish, cakes, tortes, pies, tarts, muffins, bars, cookies, and tortillas.",
12      "rank": 1,
13      "score": 0.891025641025641
14    },
15    {
16      "ticId": 0,
17      "label": "General",
18      "naturalLabel": "Uncategorized tangilble personal property",
19      "description": "Uncategorized tangilble personal property",
20      "documentation": "Any tangible personal property that does not fit within the other defined categories. This TIC defaults to taxable in all states. For uncategorized services, use TIC 00001.",
21      "rank": 2,
22      "score": 0.8249269005847953
23    },
24    {
25      "ticId": 40030,
26      "label": "Food and Food ingredients",
27      "naturalLabel": "Food and food ingredients excluding alcoholic beverages and tobacco",
28      "description": "Food and food ingredients excluding alcoholic beverages and tobacco",
29      "documentation": "Food and food ingredients means substances, whether in liquid, concentrated, solid, frozen, dried, or dehydrated form, that are sold for ingestion or chewing by humans and are consumed for their taste or nutritional value. Note: Excludes alcoholic beverages and tobacco.",
30      "rank": 3,
31      "score": 0.7809034572733202
32    }
33  ]
34}

Product Code Recommendation

The Product Code Recommendation endpoint accepts the same natural language input as Product Code Search, but adds an AI-powered model that selects the single best TIC match for your product. Use this endpoint when you need the most accurate automatic recommendation for a given product description.

Endpoint

Header Parameters

X-API-KEY
stringRequired

Your Ziptax API key.

Body Parameters

query
stringRequired

A full-text product description. The model returns the best matching TIC for this description.

Example

$curl -X POST https://api.zip-tax.com/search/tic/recommend \
>  -H "X-API-KEY: YOUR_API_KEY" \
>  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
>  -d '{
>    "query": "baked bread in plastic packaging"
>  }'

Example Response

1{
2    "predictions": [
3        {
4            "status": "success",
5            "error": null,
6            "ticId": 41030,
7            "label": "Bakery Items",
8            "naturalLabel": "Bakery Items",
9            "tic_description": "Bakery items sold without eating utensils provided by the seller, including bread, rolls, buns, biscuits, bagels, croissants, pastries, donuts, Danish, cakes, tortes, pies, tarts, muffins, bars, cookies, tortillas ",
10            "product_description": "baked bread in plastic packaging"
11        }
12    ]
13}