What is the standard VAT or GST rate for a given country?

Each country profile returns the standard consumption-tax rate, what it is called locally (VAT, GST, IVA, ITBIS and so on), any reduced bands, and whether prices legally include the tax. Rates are researched against national authorities and re-checked every release.

Do prices need to include tax, or is it added at checkout?

That depends on the market, and the profile tells you: many countries require the shelf price to already contain VAT, while others add it at checkout. The tax_included_in_price flag lets you display prices lawfully in each place.

What happens for countries with no single national tax rate?

We return null rather than a made-up figure. Places like the US, where sales tax is set at state and local level, do not have one national rate, and inventing one would be worse than admitting the gap.

Tax intelligence — LocaleSense

The standard consumption-tax rate, what it is called locally (VAT, GST, IVA, ITBIS), the reduced bands, and whether prices legally include it. Nulls where no national rate exists — never a fabricated number.

Why it works_

Charge the right tax, display it correctly

Rates that were re-verified

Researched against national tax authorities and re-checked on each release — we caught Kazakhstan going to 16% and Fiji being cut to 12.5%.

Inclusive vs exclusive

Whether the law expects tax inside the shelf price or added at checkout, per country.

Honest gaps

Markets with no single national rate return null, not a made-up figure.

The data behind it

One call, these response blocks.

This page maps to these blocks of the same response every other page reads:

tax-intelligence.sh

curl "https://api.localesense.com/v1/self" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ls_live_..." \
  -H "CF-IPCountry: DE"

In practice

What your code sees, per request.

The sample on the right is the shape of the real response for a visitor in Karachi — every value attributable, nothing guessed. Point the same call at any of the 197 markets.

Try it live in the docs

GET /v1/self 200 OK · sample