Free Sales Tax Calculator

What Is a Sales Tax Calculator?

Quick answer: A sales tax calculator adds tax to a price or takes it out of a total. Enter the Amount and Tax Percentage %, pick Inclusive of tax or Exclusive of tax, and press Calculate Tax. The Result card shows Net Amount, Tax Rate, Tax Amount and Gross Amount. Try it with your own numbers.

You supply the rate and this free sales tax calculator does the arithmetic. It cannot look a rate up from a ZIP code, address or state, so see the rate section below.

How to Use This Sales Tax Calculator

1. Choose a mode. The page opens on Inclusive of tax, where the number you type already contains the tax. Click Exclusive of tax to start from a price before tax. Only a mouse click or a tap switches the tiles.
2. Type the Amount. An amount with more than two decimals is first rounded to the nearest cent (half a cent rounds up), and every money value is shown with two decimals.
3. Type the Tax Percentage %. Enter 7.5 for 7.5 percent, not 0.075. Decimal rates such as 6.125 or 8.25 are accepted, and Calculate Tax uses every digit of the rate.
4. Press Calculate Tax. The Result card lists Net Amount (the price before tax), Tax Rate (your rate, such as 7%), Tax Amount (the tax in money, such as 1.40) and Gross Amount (the total with tax), each with a copy to clipboard icon.
5. Read, copy, repeat. The Result card hides as soon as you change a box or the mode, so press Calculate Tax again. Each icon copies its own row, so the Tax Rate icon copies the rate (such as 7%) and the Tax Amount icon copies the money. A negative value shows Invalid Input and an empty box gets your browser's required-field prompt; either way no old Result card stays on screen.

Try it now: enter your numbers in the calculator above. Unsure of the rate? The section below shows how to find it.

Add Sales Tax or Reverse It: Worked Examples

These are the sums the two modes run.

• Adding tax: tax = price x rate / 100, then total = price + tax.
• Removing tax: price before tax = total / (1 + rate / 100), then tax = total minus price before tax.
• Rate from a receipt: tax / price before tax x 100, which you do by hand.

Seven live runs follow, re-checked with decimal arithmetic, at made-up rates.

Take 19.99 at 7 percent. The tax is 19.99 x 0.07 = 1.3993, which rounds to 1.40, so the total is 21.39. Put 21.39 back in with Inclusive of tax at the same rate and you get 19.99 and 1.40, so the modes mirror each other here. Our guide on how to calculate a percentage by hand covers the percent to decimal step. Then try your own numbers.

Remove Sales Tax From a Total or Add It: Which Mode Do You Need?

Choose Exclusive of tax to add sales tax to price tags, quotes and other pre-tax figures: Net Amount equals what you typed (rounded to the cent) and Gross Amount is the total after tax. For a total that already contains the tax, such as a receipt, choose Inclusive of tax. Many US stores leave tax off the tag, but the page opens on Inclusive of tax. Switch it first.

Searching for a reverse sales tax calculator? Inclusive of tax is that mode. It starts from the total and works back to the price before tax, which is how you remove sales tax from a total. A VAT or GST total fits too, with its own rate and none of its rules.

Proof the mode matters: the same 100 at 8 percent gives a Gross Amount of 108 in Exclusive of tax mode, but a Net Amount of 92.59 and 7.41 of tax in Inclusive of tax mode.

How to Find the Sales Tax Rate to Enter

There is no tax rate lookup here, so the number in Tax Percentage % is yours to supply. Get it wrong and the arithmetic will faithfully multiply the wrong thing.

You want the combined sales tax rate: state sales tax plus local sales tax, meaning county tax, city tax and special district tax. As a made-up illustration, 6 percent plus 1.5 percent of local tax gives 7.5. Each layer is explained in our longer guide to sales tax.

Divide a recent receipt's tax by its subtotal and multiply by 100: 5.60 / 80 x 100 = 7. That works only when every line was taxable, since exempt items drag the result down. You can ask your state tax agency, which the Federation of Tax Administrators member list links to. Or start from the state and local sales tax rate tables the Tax Foundation publishes.

Tip: a state average is a starting point, not the rate at your address. Check the date on any table, because rates get revised.

What the Results Mean and How Rounding Works

Tax Rate repeats your rate, such as 7.5%, and Tax Amount shows the tax in money, such as 15.00. Net Amount plus Tax Amount always equals Gross Amount: 200.00 plus 15.00 is 215.00. Exclusive of tax rounds the tax to the nearest cent, half a cent up, and adds it to your price. Inclusive of tax rounds Net Amount the same way, and the tax is what is left of your total. Money values print with two decimals as a plain number with no currency symbol.

For 2.75 at 6 percent in Exclusive of tax mode the true tax is exactly 0.165, and the calculator rounds that half cent up, so Tax Amount is 0.17 and Gross Amount is 2.92. Net Amount plus Tax Amount (2.75 plus 0.17) equals that Gross Amount.

Inclusive of tax rounds the net instead: 1.23 at 20 percent has a true net of 1.025, which the calculator rounds up to 1.03, so Tax Amount is the 0.20 that is left and the two still add up to 1.23.

Don't expect a match to the cent. Sellers may round per line or per invoice, discount before tax, or mix taxable and exempt items, so compare the rate first and the rounding second.

Common Sales Tax Mistakes to Avoid

Five slips to check before you trust a number.

• Taking the rate off the total. To back out sales tax from 212 at 8 percent, 212 x 0.92 = 195.04 looks right, but the price before tax is 196.30.
• Typing 0.075 for 7.5. The field takes a percentage, so 0.075 is read as 0.075 percent. In Exclusive of tax mode, 100 at that rate gives a tax of 0.08.
• Using only the state rate. Local rates often stack on top: 6 instead of 7.5 on an 80 price leaves out 1.20 of tax.
• Leaving the wrong mode on. If Net Amount comes back smaller than the shelf price you typed, the tile is still on Inclusive of tax.
• Forgetting the store discount. Tax is usually charged on the discounted price, so take the discount before tax with the Discount Calculator. Coupon rules differ, so check the receipt.

What This Sales Tax Calculator Does Not Do

• No rate lookup. No ZIP code, street address or state field and no rate table.
• One amount at a time. No cart, shipping, exemptions or use tax.
• No solving for a rate. Use the Percentage Calculator's "Y is what percentage of X" option, tax as Y and price before tax as X.
• No memory. After a reload the Result card is empty, and your browser may reset the boxes and the mode to Inclusive of tax, or keep what you typed. In our tests, Back restored the numbers and mode but not the Result card.

We tested by blocking requests, not by restarting a live server. After load, a calculation sent nothing to our server in our trace, and clearing every cookie changed no result. If the site's script file fails to load, say on a flaky connection or during a site update, Calculate Tax shows no result and no message, so reload. With JavaScript off, the form does not appear.

One note: this is arithmetic, not a ruling on which rate or taxability rule applies to your sale. Rates vary by location and product, so confirm with your state tax agency before you file or invoice. See the USAGov guide to state and local taxes.

Who Uses a Sales Tax Calculator?

This online sales tax calculator fits four jobs.

• Shoppers. Type a shelf price in Exclusive of tax mode and see the total before checkout.
• Small business owners and freelancers. Price an invoice line or quote, then copy Gross Amount, which pastes as a bare number.
• Bookkeepers. Split a receipt total into net and tax for bookkeeping or an expense report, using Inclusive of tax.
• Students. Check homework by running a price forward, then the total back. A one-cent gap against the answer key may be rounding.

Related Free Calculators

Work out the price first, then add the tax, or browse the set.

• Average Calculator: finds the mean of several prices before you add tax.
• How to calculate discount and savings: a guide to the discount step before tax.
• All free online calculators: the rest of the calculator family.