Sales Tax & VAT Calculator

Add tax to a price or strip it out of a tax-inclusive total — with one-tap presets for US sales tax, Gulf VAT, EU TVA/VAT and India GST, or any custom rate.

Adding vs removing tax

To add tax, multiply the net price by (1 + rate). 8% on 100 → 100 × 1.08 = 108. To remove tax from a price that already includes it, divide by (1 + rate) — a common mistake is to subtract the percentage, which gives the wrong answer. To strip 20% VAT from 120: 120 ÷ 1.20 = 100 net, with 20 of VAT. The remove mode above does this correctly for you.

VAT, GST and sales tax — what's the difference?

They are all consumption taxes and, for a shopper, the arithmetic is identical. Sales tax (common in the United States) is added once at the final till and varies by state and city. VAT (the EU, the UK and the Gulf) and GST (India and others) are collected in stages along the supply chain but ultimately paid by the end customer. Whatever it's called where you are, this tool gives the right net, tax and total.

Common tax rates around the world

Rates change and often depend on the product, but these are typical standard rates to sanity-check your result:

Always confirm the exact rate for your item and location — reduced rates often apply to food, medicine and books.

Tax-inclusive vs tax-exclusive pricing

Whether a displayed price already contains tax varies by country, and it changes what you should calculate. Most of Europe, the UK, Australia and the Gulf show tax-inclusive prices — the shelf price is what you pay. The United States and Canada generally show tax-exclusive prices, with sales tax added at the register.

This is why a US visitor to Europe finds the total matches the label, while a European in the US is surprised at checkout. It also explains a frequent bookkeeping error: taking a percentage off a tax-inclusive total does not recover the net price. From a 1,200 total including 20% VAT, the net is 1,200 ÷ 1.20 = 1,000, and the tax is 200 — not 1,200 − 240.

Finding the tax inside a total

To pull the tax out of a gross figure, use tax = gross × rate ÷ (100 + rate). At 20%, that is gross × 20/120, or one sixth. At 15% it is gross × 15/115. At 5% it is gross × 5/105.

So a 690 receipt at 15% contains 690 × 15/115 = 90 in tax, leaving 600 net. Anyone filing a VAT or GST return does this constantly, and getting the denominator wrong (using 100 instead of 115) understates the net and overstates reclaimable tax.

Which rate applies to what

Most systems use more than one rate, so the headline figure is not universal. Alongside the standard rate, countries commonly apply a reduced rate to essentials such as food, books, children's clothing or medicine, a zero rate where the item is taxable at 0% and the seller can still reclaim input tax, and exemptions for things like financial services, education or healthcare — where no tax is charged and no input tax is reclaimable.

Zero-rated and exempt sound identical to a shopper but are very different to a business, which is why the distinction matters on returns. In the US the picture is more fragmented still: rates combine state, county and city components, so two shops a few kilometres apart can charge different totals on the same item. Always confirm the rate for your exact location and product category rather than assuming a national figure.

Frequently asked questions