Sales Tax Calculator
Quickly add sales tax or VAT to a price, or strip it out to see the pre-tax amount. Enter the price, the tax rate, and choose add or remove — no spreadsheets needed.
Sales tax calculator
Add or remove sales tax (or VAT) from any price in seconds.
FAQs
How do I add sales tax to a price?
Multiply the price by one plus the tax rate as a decimal. For a $50 item at 6% tax: $50 × 1.06 = $53.00.
How do I find the pre-tax price from a total?
Divide the total by one plus the tax rate. A $215 receipt with 7.5% tax gives $215 ÷ 1.075 = $200.00 before tax, meaning $15.00 was tax.
How it works
Adding tax is simple: multiply the price by one plus the tax rate. For example, a $100 item with 8% tax costs $100 × 1.08 = $108.00.
Removing tax works the other way: divide the total by one plus the rate. A $108 receipt at 8% tax means the pre-tax price was $108 ÷ 1.08 = $100.00, so $8.00 of that total was tax.
Switch between "Add tax" and "Remove tax" to see either the final price or the base price and tax amount separately. Use it for receipts, online orders, or quick mental math while shopping.
Why sales tax confuses receipts
The price on a shelf or a product page is usually the base price, and tax gets added at checkout. That is why a "$100" purchase rarely totals $100 — the receipt's final number depends on the local rate applied on top of the base price.
Seeing the breakdown helps you double-check receipts and compare real costs. If two stores charge $80 and $85 before tax, the gap may flip once different tax rates are applied, so always compare totals, not sticker prices.
Adding vs. removing: two everyday moves
Adding tax is what shoppers do at checkout — turn a list price into the amount you will actually pay. Removing tax is what receipts get you: working backward from a total to the pre-tax price, which is handy for expense reports and budgeting.
Both use the same rate; only the direction changes. Adding multiplies, removing divides, and the tax portion is the difference between the two numbers.
A quick rule of thumb
For an 8% rate, you can estimate by finding 10% of the price and subtracting about a fifth of that. On a $100 item, 10% is $10, and a fifth of that is $2, so the tax is roughly $8.
Estimates are fine for quick checks, but use the calculator when the number matters — receipts, reimbursements, and price comparisons all deserve the exact figure.