Building for Businesses: Rapyd Team Members Build a Tax Solution in 24 Hours
Tags: fintech, payments, node, tax
Published: 2023-03-14 18:36:57

Rapyd began as a payment application that would be dead in the water had it not pivoted to an international payments network. Now, Rapyd is on a mission to liberate global commerce with all the tools you need for payments, payouts and business everywhere. We hear inspiring stories of the start of that mission, and how the grit of each team member helped build the platform and payments network that is Rapyd. 

## Build to Win 

[Developers are critical](https://community.rapyd.net/t/the-importance-of-developers-in-todays-tech-landscape-lets-show-some/) players to build and grow the digital frontier that we see evolving today. The spark that started the Rapyd platform is still alive today. Each year team members gather for an annual internal hackathon where teams come together all over the world for 24 hours to develop a new idea or solution. The goal was to encourage creativity, collaborate with new team members, and build a working demo for a grand prize. Team members would use the Rapyd API, and any Rapyd platform to build out their new service, or feature. 

The winning team was called the eMonkeys, made up of team members from Tel Aviv, Dubai and the United States. They created a tax add-on feature that offers two options for calculating taxes. The first option is a manual tax calculation, which enables clients to create basic rules configured at the country and product level. This is useful for companies that need a simple way to calculate taxes on their products.

The second option is an automatic tax calculation with “rooftop accuracy”. This means that the tax calculation is made precisely down to the street address, which is especially useful for companies with multiple locations.

In addition to the tax calculation options, the eMonkeys also developed a feature that improves the accuracy of tax calculations by categorizing products. This reduces the need for tax overrides and makes it easier for companies to determine the tax liability for their products. This will help clients from having to input tax calculations manually to determine how much they will pay local, state and federal government entities for their products. This is an important aspect as each country holds different tax laws. 

Developers built their stack using Node.js, the Rapyd API, TypeScript, Docker and MySQL. Avalar, an automated tax compliance software, was an important integration for the Rapyd tax calculations. Rapyd has many partners and integrations for their platforms as fintech continues to work together. 


![Rapyd Hosted Checkout Page Tax Solution](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/kok3akoyd6ve07hsfo63.png)

## An Impactful Experience

Overall, the eMonkeys’ tax add-on feature is a valuable tool for companies looking to streamline their tax calculation process and improve accuracy. It offers a range of options for both manual and automatic tax calculations, and includes features that help to reduce the need for tax overrides and improve tax liability insights. The accuracy of tax calculations will greatly impact businesses with cross-border sales and transactions. 

One of the backend developers, Dileep shared his thoughts on the full day altogether, “The Hackathon was an incredible experience. The first time for us to get together in an event like this. It was an amazing experience. The food was amazing, and we had amenities that helped us get through the 24 hours—we even got a massage. We were able to stay focused on the task, and enjoy the challenge at the same time.” The team’s members included: developers Abdulla Hawari, Sonu Kumar, Dileep Bandla, Ernesto Gomila, and Product Manager David Shapira, and Technical Writer Ronen Sigan.

You can learn about integrations with the Rapyd API at [rapyd.net/developers](http://rapyd.net/developers) or hit the ground running with an integration at [github.com/Rapyd-Samples](https://github.com/Rapyd-Samples).