Sales Tax & VAT Calculator
A sales tax or VAT calculator adds tax to a price or works backwards to remove it. Adding tax multiplies by one plus the rate. Removing tax is a reverse percentage: you divide by that multiplier rather than subtracting the percentage, which is a very common mistake. The tax amount is shown separately.
How to use the sales tax & vat calculator
- Choose whether to add or remove tax.
- Enter the price and the tax rate.
- Press Calculate to see the result and the tax amount.
Formula
Worked example: Add 20% VAT to 100
- What do you want?: Add tax to a price
- Price: 100
- Tax rate (%): 20
✓ Answer checked
- Tax amount
- 20.00
Step-by-step working (1 step)
Multiplier
Adding 20% means multiplying by 1.2.
Formulas used
How this was checked
- ✓ Net price × multiplier gives back the gross price exactly.
Money rounded to 2 decimal places.
Frequently asked questions
How do I add 20% VAT?
Multiply by 1.2. A price of 100 becomes 120.
How do I remove 20% VAT?
Divide by 1.2. A price of 59.99 including VAT is 49.99 before VAT.
Why not just take off 20%?
The 20% was added to the smaller pre-tax price, so 20% of the higher price is too much.
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