Quickstart: Call the Payroll Point API

The Payroll Point (PRP) API identifies and accurately determines complex state and local taxes based on an employee’s home and work addresses, returning results in JSON. This guide walks a new API client through the full flow: authenticate and look up taxes for an employee. Prefer a UI over building your own integration? See the Quickstart: Look up taxes in Portal instead.

Before you begin

You’ll need an API key to follow this guide. If you don’t have one, contact your Symmetry Client Success representative or reach out through the Client Support Center. See Prerequisites for the account configuration your administrator needs to complete before any lookup will work.

Postman

Download the PRP Postman collection and environment variables to test all endpoints with pre-built sample requests.

Payroll Point API overview

Base URLs, authentication, and the Swagger explorer for production and staging.

Environments

Environment	PRP API base URL
Production	`https://api.symmetry.com`
Staging	`https://api-staging.symmetry.com`

Always develop and test against the staging environment before pointing your integration at production.

The primary endpoint that returns taxes for an employee’s home and work location is /prp/v1/taxes.

Step 1: Authenticate

Every PRP API endpoint other than /authentication/login itself requires a JWT access token. Request one by calling the authentication endpoint with your API key.

GET /authentication/login

curl --location --request GET 'https://api-staging.symmetry.com/authentication/login' \
--header 'api-key: y0urAPI-KeyG0esH3re'

A successful response returns an accessToken:

{
  "accessToken": "yoUrTokEnISh3re!"
}

Send this token as a Bearer token in the Authorization header on every other request in this guide. Tokens are valid for 24 hours. After they expire, Payroll Point endpoints return HTTP 401 with {"message": "Unauthorized"} until you request a new token.

Step 2: Look up taxes for an employee

With your access token, call /prp/v1/taxes with the employee’s home and work locations. The response contains every applicable state, local, and employer tax for both locations.

POST /prp/v1/taxes

curl --location --request POST 'https://api-staging.symmetry.com/prp/v1/taxes' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data '{
  "taxRequestId": "1",
  "payDate": "",
  "useAddressSuggestion": false,
  "home": {
    "companyHasNexus": true,
    "location": {
      "address": {
        "streetAddress1": "123 main st",
        "city": "Edison",
        "state": "NJ",
        "zipCode": "08837"
      }
    }
  },
  "work": [
    {
      "locationName": "Symmetry Work Address",
      "nonResidentCertificateOnFile": true,
      "location": {
        "address": {
          "streetAddress1": "14350 87th st",
          "city": "Scottsdale",
          "state": "AZ",
          "zipCode": "85260"
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}'

{
  "result": {
    "homeResults": { "...": "normalized address, geocoordinates, and jurisdiction details for the home location" },
    "workResults": { "...": "normalized address, geocoordinates, and jurisdiction details for each work location" },
    "taxResults": [
      {
        "uniqueTaxID": "34-000-0000-SIT-000",
        "description": "New Jersey State Tax",
        "rate": 0.0,
        "rateType": "RATE_GRADUATED",
        "paid": true,
        "employerTax": false,
        "resident": true
      }
    ],
    "minimumWage": []
  }
}

companyHasNexus and nonResidentCertificateOnFile both affect which taxes come back as required. See Required taxes and Reciprocity and nonresident certificates before setting these in production. For the full request/response schema, see the location taxes endpoint in the API reference.

Step 3: Look up minimum wage rates (optional)

For clients who license the minimum wage add-on, call /prp/v1/minimumwage/location the same way, passing a single address (or latitude/longitude pair) and an effective date.

GET /prp/v1/minimumwage/location

curl --location --request GET 'https://api-staging.symmetry.com/prp/v1/minimumwage/location?streetAddress1=123 main st&city=Edison&state=NJ&zipCode=08837&effectiveDate=2026-01-01' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN'

See the minimum wage location endpoint, minimum wage by ID, and upcoming rates in the API reference, Retrieve recent minimum wage rate updates for recent rate changes, and Minimum wage concepts to understand why a location can return more than one rate.

Next steps

API reference

Full reference for every PRP API endpoint, including query parameters and sample responses.

Tax results

How to read what a lookup returns, and what each tax in the response means.

More references:

Migrating from the legacy Payroll Point Web Service? Create a ticket and our team can help you plan the move.

​Before you begin

Postman

Payroll Point API overview

​Environments

​Step 1: Authenticate

​Step 2: Look up taxes for an employee

​Step 3: Look up minimum wage rates (optional)

​Next steps

API reference

Tax results

Before you begin

Environments

Step 1: Authenticate

Step 2: Look up taxes for an employee

Step 3: Look up minimum wage rates (optional)

Next steps