Create an item

TRA fiscal receipts and items

As covered on the create a fiscal receipt page, a fiscal receipt or invoice contains:

customer details
at least one line item
payment breakdown

In this guide, we'll walk through creating an item via POST /items.

Creating an item for a TRA fiscal receipt

An item represents a product or service you sell. Creating items in your DigiTax catalog makes them reusable across multiple invoices.

To create an item, supply the following details:

name: Item name or title
description: Detailed item description (optional)
tax_type: The TRA VAT category code (e.g. STANDARD, ZERO_RATED, SPECIAL_RATE, SPECIAL_RELIEF, EXEMPTED)
unit_amount: Base unit price in Tanzanian Shillings (TZS)
discount_rate: Default discount fraction between 0 and 1 (optional)

Tax types overview

Tax Type	Rate	Category Letter	Description
`STANDARD`	18% (`0.18`)	`A`	Standard VAT rate applied to most taxable goods and services in Tanzania.
`SPECIAL_RATE`	0% (`0.00`)	`B`	Special rate prescribed under specific Ministerial orders.
`ZERO_RATED`	0% (`0.00`)	`C`	Taxable at 0% with input VAT recovery (exports, international freight).
`SPECIAL_RELIEF`	0% (`0.00`)	`D`	Supplies provided under special statutory relief.
`EXEMPTED`	0% (`0.00`)	`E`	Wholly exempt supplies under the VAT Act (no VAT charged or recoverable).

For complete rules, see Item attributes.

Create item request example

Submit the item to POST /items:

{
  "name": "Professional IT Support",
  "description": "Monthly dedicated network and software support",
  "tax_type": "STANDARD",
  "unit_amount": 50000,
  "discount_rate": 0
}

API response

When successfully created, the API returns a 201 Created status with the item record:

{
  "id": "item_01HC3J1VVVM05YCTS61G7V3KC6",
  "name": "Professional IT Support",
  "description": "Monthly dedicated network and software support",
  "tax_type": "STANDARD",
  "unit_amount": 50000,
  "discount_rate": 0,
  "created_at": "2026-07-14T00:00:00Z",
  "updated_at": "2026-07-14T00:00:00Z"
}

Line items on an invoice

When you submit an invoice via POST /invoices, each entry in the items array references a catalog item by its item_id, specifying the quantity, unit_amount, and optional discounts or description overrides. DigiTax derives the correct tax breakdown and totals for EFDMS submission automatically.