How the tax engine works

The deterministic rules-engine model behind Ratify's destination tax calculation: citation-grade, audit-grade, fast.

Ratify's tax engine is a deterministic rules engine, not an LLM. It reads versioned rate tables sourced from primary statutes, agency guidance, and attested filings. It then emits a per-line tax breakdown with a citation pinned to every rate.

Inputs

  1. Ship-to address (resolved into a full federal → state → county → city jurisdiction chain)
  2. Product details: type, ABV, volume
  3. Producer context: licenses held, prior period totals

Outputs

  • A line-item breakdown for each tax component
  • Citation provenance for each rate: its authority tier, the type of publisher, and a link to the source.
  • Confidence + last-verified timestamps

Status

The tax engine is in development. The per-state reference data it reads is live today. Once the engine ships, every rate it returns will carry a citation to its primary source, and it will draw from the same data the public state pages already use.

See /tax-engine for more.