Sourced tax facts and origin stories
tax_factsRead-onlyIdempotent
Sourced facts about a country's tax system: when and why its GST/VAT was introduced, what it replaced, and memorable, true stories (court cases, elections, odd rulings) — each fact linked to its own source. Omit country for a primer on what a consumption tax is plus famous tax stories from history. Pass topic to keep only facts about one tax (each fact lists its topics). Use it for background, explainers, teaching or a conversation opener; for any rate or amount use tax_rate_lookup, compute_gst_vat or the estimate tools, because facts are dated stories, not live figures. Countries without curated facts return the list of countries that have them rather than an invented one.
Input Schema
TableJSON Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| topic | No | Optional: only facts about this tax — 'gst' (GST/VAT and other consumption taxes), 'income', 'company', 'cgt', 'super', 'studentloan' or 'general'. Omit for every fact | |
| country | No | 2-letter ISO code, e.g. AU, GB, JP. Omit for the global primer and famous tax stories |
Output Schema
TableJSON Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| code | No | 2-letter ISO code (country scope only) | |
| facts | Yes | The facts, each with its own source. Show the source alongside any fact you repeat | |
| scope | Yes | Whether these are one country’s facts or the global set | |
| topic | No | The topic filter applied, when one was passed | |
| primer | No | What a consumption tax is (global scope only) | |
| country | No | Country name (country scope only) | |
| replaced | No | The tax it replaced, when on record | |
| disclaimer | Yes | Note that must accompany facts shown to a person | |
| originYear | No | Year the country’s GST/VAT began, when on record | |
| originStory | No | How it came to be, in a paragraph | |
| countriesWithFacts | Yes | Every country code that has curated facts |