CalcAPI
CalcAPI is a tool for businesses to accurately calculate Registration Fees, Title fees, Sales Taxes, and Property taxes for motor vehicles. Our calculators offer unprecedented detail and precision to assist you with sales, transactions, and expense forecasting. CalcAPI operates for all 50 United States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.
CalcAPI is comprised of a collection of hundreds of calculators that determine fees and taxes using the same information used by states, cities, counties, and other jurisdictions.
CalcAPI is Flexible
The precision of the results of your inquiries is largely dependent on the precision of the input parameters you provide. For example, if you want to calculate property taxes for a passenger vehicle in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, you would need to provide the location where the vehicle is principally garaged, and the current retail value. This information may or may not be available to you, and may be of different levels of precision. CalcAPI understands that you may not have access to the precise information needed to meet the rules of the calculation, so:
CalcAPI accepts information inputs of varying levels of precision. For example, you can provide address information with whatever level of specificity is available (state, city, county, zipcode, street address), and we will calculate the all of the available tax rates based on that level of detail. See example below – the request is for property tax for zipcode 27514. This zipcode spans two taxing jurisdictions, Chapel Hill, and unincorporated Orange County in North Carolina. CalcAPI returns the tax as calculated for Orange County, as calculated for the town of Chapel Hill, and also returns a weighted average of the two, based on the proportion of the population that falls into each of these jurisdictions. Looking more closely, you will notice that the value for Chapel Hill is presented as two values: the “total” (169.17) and the “range” (6.87). This indicates that the tax for this vehicle could range from 162.30 (169.17 – 6.87) to 176.04 (169.17 + 6.87), thus the total is the midpoint, within the range of possible values for this vehicle for Chapel Hill. Reporting a range is the result of not having the specific address where the vehicle is garaged, and thus not being able to determine which school district tax within the town applies.
Example 1 – Property Tax request for passenger vehicle with retail value of $10,000 in zipcode 27514
{
"ok": true,
"state_abbr": "NC",
"state_name": "North Carolina",
"api_version": [
3,
1,
1
],
"tax": {
"total": 163.14259259259,
"range": 6.36,
"result_type": "exact_match",
"params": {
"st": "NC",
"calc_id": "167",
"value": "10000",
"addr": "27514",
"state_name": "North Carolina"
},
"location_matches": [
{
"overlap_pct": 7.4,
"total": 87.8,
"range": 0,
"loc2": "Orange County",
"loc3": "n/a"
},
{
"overlap_pct": 92.5,
"total": 169.17,
"range": 6.87,
"loc2": "Orange County",
"loc3": "Chapel Hill"
}
]
}
}
It begins with the Metadata call
To learn what fees and taxes are available for a state, initiate a metadata call. The result will be a list of all taxes and fees available for a state. The listing will tell you the unique identifier (calc_id), whether it is a fixed or calculated value (calc_type), the timeframe for which the fee applies (period)(if fees exceed one year, the rate reported will be an annualized rate), the category the fee falls into (calc_category), the name of the tax or fee (calc_name), and the individual parameters which must be provided to calculate the fee, if applicable. All calculated parameters will ask for loc2 and loc3. These are equivalent to county and city. They are not required if another location value, such as zipcode is provided (they will be derived from the information you provide). Other parameters will have a name, such as “vt”, a description of that name, such as “vehicle type”, an indication of what type of data input is required (textual or numerical), a detailed indicator (such as gvw to specify a weight parameter), if appropriate (subtype), and a list of acceptable values, if the parameter has a fixed list of acceptable inputs (values).
The metadata call provides all the necessary information to request the fee or tax information. In some cases, a default value is stored by CalcAPI, and will be used if no parameter value is provided, though this is applicable only for some parameters. For example, if vehicle_type is not specified, it is likely the default value is “passenger”, and that will be applied.
Example 2 – The Metadata Call – This is a call for metadata for North Carolina
{
"ok": true,
"state_abbr": "NC",
"state_name": "North Carolina",
"api_version": [
2,
0,
1
],
"calculators": [
{
"calc_id": "30",
"st": "NC",
"calc_type": "fixed",
"period": "one time",
"calc_category": "Title fee",
"calc_name": ""
},
{
"calc_id": "167",
"st": "NC",
"calc_type": "value-based",
"period": "annual",
"calc_category": "Property tax",
"calc_name": "NC Propery tax",
"params": [
{
"name": "loc2",
"descr": "county",
"type": "spatial",
"subtype": "",
"unit": "n/a"
},
{
"name": "loc3",
"descr": "city,town below county level",
"type": "spatial",
"subtype": "",
"unit": "n/a"
},
{
"name": "value",
"descr": "vehicleu2019s retail value (similar to NADA retail value)",
"type": "numerical",
"subtype": "vrv",
"unit": "$"
}
]
},
{
"calc_id": "177",
"st": "NC",
"calc_type": "fixed",
"period": "annual",
"calc_category": "Registration fee",
"calc_name": "NC plate fee",
"params": [
{
"name": "vt",
"descr": "vehicle type",
"type": "textual",
"subtype": "",
"unit": "n/a",
"values": [
"pickup truck",
"passenger"
]
},
{
"name": "w",
"descr": "Gross vehicle weight",
"type": "numerical",
"subtype": "gvw",
"unit": "lb"
}
]
},
{
"calc_id": "193",
"st": "NC",
"calc_type": "fixed",
"period": "one time",
"calc_category": "Sales tax",
"calc_name": "Sales tax",
"params": [
{
"name": "value",
"descr": "full purchase price",
"type": "numerical",
"subtype": "fpp",
"unit": "$"
}
]
},
{
"calc_id": "359",
"st": "NC",
"calc_type": "value-based",
"period": "annual",
"calc_category": "Registration fee",
"calc_name": "Vehicle Registration Tax",
"params": [
{
"name": "loc2",
"descr": "county",
"type": "spatial",
"subtype": "",
"unit": "n/a"
},
{
"name": "loc3",
"descr": "city,town below county level",
"type": "spatial",
"subtype": "",
"unit": "n/a"
}
]
},
{
"calc_id": "360",
"st": "NC",
"calc_type": "value-based",
"period": "annual",
"calc_category": "Registration fee",
"calc_name": "RTA Vehicle Registration Tax",
"params": [
{
"name": "loc2",
"descr": "county",
"type": "spatial",
"subtype": "",
"unit": "n/a"
},
{
"name": "loc3",
"descr": "city,town below county level",
"type": "spatial",
"subtype": "",
"unit": "n/a"
}
]
},
{
"calc_id": "361",
"st": "NC",
"calc_type": "value-based",
"period": "annual",
"calc_category": "Registration fee",
"calc_name": "PART Tax",
"params": [
{
"name": "loc2",
"descr": "county",
"type": "spatial",
"subtype": "",
"unit": "n/a"
},
{
"name": "loc3",
"descr": "city,town below county level",
"type": "spatial",
"subtype": "",
"unit": "n/a"
}
]
},
{
"calc_id": "362",
"st": "NC",
"calc_type": "value-based",
"period": "annual",
"calc_category": "Registration fee",
"calc_name": "all-electric vehicle additional fee",
"params": [
{
"name": "fueltype",
"descr": "fuel type",
"type": "textual",
"subtype": "",
"unit": "n/a",
"values": [
"electric",
"other"
]
}
]
}
]
}
Example 3 is a call for plate fees for North Carolina. This call currently requires inputs for vehicle type and weight. With the inclusion of VIN lookup, the values for these parameters can be determined without your input.
More information to follow soon.
Example 3 – Plate Fees for North Carolina
{
"ok": true,
"state_abbr": "NC",
"state_name": "North Carolina",
"api_version": [
3,
1,
1
],
"tax": {
"total": 67,
"range": 0,
"result_type": "exact_match",
"params": {
"st": "NC",
"calc_id": "177",
"addr": "27514",
"state_name": "North Carolina"
}
}
}
CalcAPI VIN Integration
Alliant Pro has recently completed incorporation VIN lookup into its API calls. VIN lookup can provide values for many of the required input parameters needed to calculate fees and taxes. For example, VIN lookup can provide the vehicle empty weight, a parameter required for calculating registration fees and property taxes in many states. Where VIN lookup cannot provide the needed values, there are vehicle-type specific defaults to ensure the most accurate results based on available information.
Ready to learn more about CalcAPI? Interested in giving it a test run in your business? If so, contact us, and let us know how we can help you.