Calculate sales tax, tax-inclusive prices, or pre-tax base costs. Support for custom local tax rates to verify invoices, receipts, and retail purchases.
Sales tax is a consumption tax imposed by governments on the sale of goods and services. Our free online Sales Tax Calculator helps you calculate the tax amount and the total purchase price, or reverse-calculate the pre-tax price from a known total including tax.
The formulas are straightforward: Sales Tax = Pre-Tax Price × (Tax Rate / 100), Total Price = Pre-Tax Price + Sales Tax. To reverse-calculate: Pre-Tax Price = Total Price / (1 + Tax Rate/100). This tool is valuable for retail purchases and business budgeting.
To calculate sales tax, multiply the item's price by the tax rate in decimal form. For example, if an item costs $50 and the sales tax rate is 8%, multiply $50 by 0.08 to get $4.00 of sales tax. The total price is $54.00.
To find the pre-tax price from a total price, divide the total price by 1 plus the tax rate as a decimal. For example, if the total is $108 and the tax rate is 8%, divide 108 by 1.08 to get a pre-tax price of $100.
A sales tax exemption is a situation where certain items (like groceries, prescription medicines, or clothing in some regions) or certain buyers (like government agencies or non-profit organizations) are not subject to sales tax.
Use tax is a companion tax to sales tax. It is owed by buyers who purchase goods from out-of-state retailers who do not collect sales tax, typically for items purchased online or by mail order for use in their home state.