Sales Tax Calculator
Add sales tax to a price, or pull the tax back out of a total that already includes it.
How to use the Sales Tax Calculator
- Enter the amount — a pre-tax price to add tax, or a tax-inclusive total to remove it.
- Enter your local sales tax rate as a percentage.
- Choose whether to add tax or remove it.
- See the tax amount and the net or gross price instantly.
Add: Total = Amount × (1 + rate/100) · Remove: Net = Total ÷ (1 + rate/100)
About the Sales Tax Calculator
Sales tax is added at the point of sale as a percentage of the price. This calculator works both ways: give it a pre-tax amount and it adds the tax to show the final price a customer pays, or give it a tax-inclusive total and it works backwards to reveal how much of that total was tax and what the net price was. The reverse mode is the one people reach for at the till or when reconciling a receipt, because dividing by one-plus-the-rate is easy to get wrong by hand.
Rates vary enormously by place. In the United States there is no national sales tax — states, counties and cities each set their own, so a single storefront can face a combined rate made of several layers. Elsewhere the equivalent is often a value-added tax (VAT) or goods-and-services tax (GST) that behaves similarly for a shopper but is collected differently along the supply chain. Because you type the rate in yourself, this tool works for any of them.
Keep in mind it applies one flat rate to the whole amount; it does not know which items are tax-exempt, nor does it handle tax holidays or tiered rules. For a business adding or removing VAT, the VAT calculator and GST calculator do the same maths under those names.
Frequently asked questions
How do I remove sales tax from a total?
Divide the tax-inclusive total by one plus the rate as a decimal. For 7.25%, divide by 1.0725. Choose "Remove tax" and the calculator does this for you, showing the net price and the tax portion.
What sales tax rate should I use?
Use your local combined rate — in the US that can mean state, county and city rates added together. Check your receipt or your tax authority, since the correct figure depends on where the sale happens.
Is sales tax the same as VAT?
For a shopper the effect is similar — a percentage added to the price — but they are collected differently. Sales tax is charged once at the final sale; VAT is collected in stages along the supply chain. The arithmetic here works for both.