📌 Multiple methods for tax identification

This page documents your organization's tax identification number as the sender/exporter using the customsInfo.taxIdentificationNumber field.

For other parties' tax identification (consignee, importer of record, third-party payors):

Primary method (recommended). Use the registrationInformation object within payorAccounts - see the Specifying Payors documentation.

Alternative method. Use customsInfo.importerOfRecord.taxIdentificationNumbers or customsInfo.brokers.taxIdentificationNumbers - see Broker & Importer of Record.

The payorAccounts.registrationInformation method is recommended for most use cases, especially when providing EORI numbers for international customs clearance.

About the tax identification number

A tax identification number, or employer identification number (EIN), is assigned and used by the Internal Revenue Service to identify a business entity. A tax ID number is required for customs when shipping internationally.

Within the Shipium system, you can provide your tax ID number via Shipium Console configuration and API call.

👍
API call value overrides console configuration
If you pass a tax ID number (using taxIdentificationNumber) in your calls to Shipium's APIs, any value you have configured for tax ID number in the Shipium Console will be overridden by the value included in the API call.

Configure your tax ID number in the Shipium Console

You can configure your tax ID number in the Shipium Console during fulfillment context setup. A fulfillment context allows you to configure the characteristics for your network origins, carrier contracts, label augmentations, third party billing, injection shipping, and tenants, in addition to other feature settings.

Guidance for establishing your tax ID number as part of fulfillment context configuration can be found in the Fulfillment Contexts documentation.

Pass your tax ID number via API call

You also may include a tax ID number when calling Shipium's Carrier and Method Selection & Shipment Label and Carrier and Method Selection APIs. Including a tax ID number in the API calls described below will override any tax ID value you have configured for a fulfillment context in the Shipium Console.

Carrier and Method Selection & Shipment Label API for single-parcel shipments

As described in the request field table in the Carrier and Method Selection & Shipment Label API documentation, the optional taxIdentificationNumber value can be included in the shipment parameters of your call to this API.

{
  "shipmentParameters": {
    "partnerShipmentId": "MY_SHIPMENT_001",
    "shippedDateTime": "2019-10-29T09:12:33.123456Z",
  ...
  "customsInfo" : {
    "taxIdentificationNumber": "12345"
  }
  ...
  }
}

Carrier and Method Selection & Shipment Label API for multi-parcel shipments

For multi-parcel shipments, the optional taxIdentificationNumber value can be included in the multi-parcel shipment parameters of your call to the Carrier and Method Selection & Shipment Label API. You can find further guidance for using this API for multi-parcel shipments in the Multi-Parcel Shipments document. However, the following code block demonstrates inclusion of the tax ID.

{
  "multiParcelshipmentParameters": {
    "partnerShipmentId": "MY_SHIPMENT_001",
    "shippedDateTime": "2019-10-29T09:12:33.123456Z",
  ...
  "customsInfo" : {
    "taxIdentificationNumber": "12345"
  }
  ...
  }
}

Carrier and Method Selection API

As described in the request field table in the Carrier and Method Selection API documentation, the optional taxIdentificationNumber value can be included in the body of the shipment entity of your call to this API.

{
  "partnerShipmentId": "MY_SHIPMENT_001",
  "shippedDateTime": "2019-10-29T09:12:33.123456Z",
  ...
  "customsInfo" : {
    "taxIdentificationNumber": "12345"
  }
  ...
}

Pass a tax ID number for payors other than the shipment sender via API call

To include a tax ID, or EIN, for an entity other than the shipment sender (or shipper), the optional payorAccounts object can be included in your call to Shipium's APIs, included either in shipmentParameters (for single-parcel shipments) or in multiParcelShipmentParameters (for mult-parcel shipments). The required request fields that are part of the payorAccounts object are defined in the table below the code example, which demonstrates inclusion of the EIN for a recipient in the shipmentParameters of the call.

🚧
The consignee tax ID is required when shipping to certain countries
Several countries, including Mexico and Brazil, have requirements for including the consignee's tax ID on customs documents for international shipments.

Requirements for the consignee account type differ from other account types; the carrier ID does not need to be included when the account type is consignee. Other data requirements for the consignee differ by carrier, as noted in Specifying Payors.

Carriers that support passing the tax ID for a consignee account type via API call include Asendia, DHL, eHub, ePost Global, FedEx, FirstMile, FlavorCloud, Landmark, OpenBorders, Passport, Purolator E-Ship, Reliable Logistics, SpeedX, UPS, USPS Direct, USPS via EasyPost, USPS via Endicia, and USPS via Pitney Bowes.

{
"shipmentParameters": {
   "payorAccounts": [ 
      {
        "accountType": "recipient",
        "carrierId": "usps",
        "registrationInformation": {
          "typeCode" : "EIN",
          "registrationNumber" : "iamaneinnumber00001",
          "issuerCountryCode" : "US" 
        },
        "billForShippingCost": false, 
        "billDutiesAndTaxes": false 
      }
    ],
  ...
}
}

Request field	Required/Optional	Field properties	Description
`payorAccounts .accountType`	Required	String enumeration Values are: `collect` `consignee` `recipient` `sender` `third_party`	The type of account to use for billing
`payorAccounts.carrierId`	Conditional Required for `third_party` and `collect` account types. Optional for `sender`, `recipient`, and `consignee` account types	String enumeration Ex.: `usps`	The carrier ID as represented in the Shipium platform; you can find carrier ID values in Supported Carriers.
`payorAccounts .registrationInformation .typeCode`	Required	String enumeration Values are: `EIN` (Employee Identification Number) `EOR` (Economic Operators Registration and Identification) `GST` (Goods and Services Tax) `VAT` (Value Added Tax)	The registration number type code for the payor account; this value should be EIN to include the tax ID for the designated entity.
`payorAccounts .registrationInformation .registrationNumber`	Required	String Ex.: `12344509`	The registration number for the payor account
`payorAccounts .registrationInformation .issuerCountryCode`	Required	String	The ISO 3166-1 country code for payor account
`payorAccounts .billForShippingCost`	Required	Boolean `true` or `false`	If `true`, this indicates whether the payor should be billed for the cost of shipping the package; the value should be `false` when designating tax ID for a payor type.
`payorAccounts .billDutiesAndTaxes`	Required	Boolean `true` or `false`	If `true`, this indicates whether the payor should be billed for duties and taxes; the value should be `false` when designating tax ID (`EIN`) for a payor type (`typeCode`).

Resources

Your Shipium team member is available to help along the way. However, you might find these resources helpful: