> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.cleariflow.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# VAT Categories endpoint

> The `categories` endpoint provides comprehensive access to current VAT rates and tax categories for specific countries, including reduced rates for qualifying goods and services to ensure accurate tax compliance.

## Getting started

### Base URL

```
https://vat.cleariflow.com/v1/categories/
```

### Categories endpoint

The `categories` endpoint requires your unique API key, and the country you'd like to check:

```
https://vat.cleariflow.com/v1/categories/
? api_key = YOUR_UNIQUE_API_KEY
& country_code = DE
```

This successful request returns comprehensive VAT rate information including standard rates and reduced rates with their associated categories:

<ResponseExample>
  ```json theme={"system"}
  [
      {
          "category": "some agricultural inputs",
          "country_code": "DE",
          "description": "Reduced VAT rate (some agricultural inputs)",
          "rate": "0.070"
      },
      {
          "category": "taxation of some gold coins and jewellery",
          "country_code": "DE",
          "description": "Reduced VAT rate (taxation of some gold coins and jewellery)",
          "rate": "0.070"
      },
      {
          "category": "cut flowers and plants for decorative use and food production",
          "country_code": "DE",
          "description": "Reduced VAT rate (cut flowers and plants for decorative use and food production)",
          "rate": "0.070"
      },
      {
          "category": "e-books",
          "country_code": "DE",
          "description": "Reduced VAT rate (e-books)",
          "rate": "0.070"
      },

      ..................

      {
          "category": "standard",
          "country_code": "DE",
          "description": "Standard VAT rate",
          "rate": "0.190"
      },
      {
          "category": "newspapers and periodicals (except those containing content harmful to minors and/or more than 50% advertising)",
          "country_code": "DE",
          "description": "Reduced VAT rate (newspapers and periodicals (except those containing content harmful to minors and/or more than 50% advertising))",
          "rate": "0.070"
      },
      {
          "category": "some timber for industrial use",
          "country_code": "DE",
          "description": "Reduced VAT rate (some timber for industrial use)",
          "rate": "0.070"
      }
  ]
  ```
</ResponseExample>

### Request parameters

<ParamField query="api_key" type="String" required>
  Your unique API key. Note that each user has unique API keys for each of Cleariflow APIs, so your VAT Validation API key will not work for as your IP Geolocation API, for example.
</ParamField>

<ParamField query="country_code" type="String" required>
  The two letter ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code of the country for which you want to retrieve VAT categories.
</ParamField>

### Response parameters

The API response is returned in a universal and lightweight [JSON format](https://www.json.org/json-en.html).

The response is an array of category objects, where each object contains:

<ResponseField name="country_code" type="String">
  The two letter ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code of the country for which the categories are returned.
</ResponseField>

<ResponseField name="rate" type="String">
  The VAT rate for this specific category as a decimal string (e.g., "0.190" for 19%).
</ResponseField>

<ResponseField name="category" type="String">
  The name of the category (e.g., "standard", "e-books", "audiobooks").
</ResponseField>

<ResponseField name="description" type="String">
  A description about the category and its applicability.
</ResponseField>