Sales Tax Calculator (Add Tax or Find the Price Before Tax)
Add sales tax to a price, or work out the price before tax and the tax included in a total, at any state and local rate.
Inputs
- Price$1,000(93%)
- Sales tax$80.00(7%)
- Price before tax
- $1,000
- Total with tax
- $1,080
- Rate
- 8%
- Working
- price × 0.08 = tax; price × 1.08 = total
Use this calculator on your own site
Free embed
- Two lines of HTML, unlimited views
- Shows a small CalculateEveryday bar, with a credit link under the calculator
What each Sales Tax input means
- The amount is
- 'Before tax' adds tax to a price. 'Including tax' splits a total that already includes tax into price and tax.
- Amount
- The price before tax, or the total including tax, depending on the mode.
- Sales tax rate (state + local)
- The combined state and local rate where the sale takes place, as on a receipt. States publish rate lookups by address.
Sales Tax formula
Tax = price × rate · total = price × (1 + rate) · from a total: price = total ÷ (1 + rate), tax = total − price
Sales tax in the US is a percentage added to the price of taxable goods and many services at the till. OpenStax's Contemporary Mathematics gives the arithmetic: the tax is the price times the rate, and the total is the price times (1 + rate). There is no national sales tax; each state sets its own rate, and counties, cities and special districts often add their own on top, so the rate on a receipt is the combined state and local rate for where the sale happens. Five states — Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon — have no statewide sales tax, though some Alaska towns charge a local one. The page works both ways. 'Before tax' adds the tax to a price. 'Including tax' takes the tax back out of a total that already contains it, which is not the same as subtracting the rate from the total: you divide by (1 + rate), because the tax was charged on the smaller, pre-tax price. That second direction is what you need to split a receipt into price and tax, or to work out the sticker price from a budget.
Sales Tax worked example
A $1,000 pre-tax purchase at 8% sales tax adds $80 in tax for a total of $1,080. US state and local rates vary by jurisdiction — enter the combined rate your receipt would use.
More Sales Tax examples
A receipt total of $54.13 at 8.25% hides $4.13 of tax: 54.13 ÷ 1.0825 = 50.00 before tax. Subtracting 8.25% of the total instead would give 4.47 of tax — wrong, because the tax was charged on 50, not on 54.13.
A $300 purchase at California's 7.25% statewide base rate carries $21.75 of tax; local district taxes in most of the state push the actual rate higher.
Where the Sales Tax calculator can give the wrong answer
- The rate is the combined rate for the place of sale. A city or county rate can add several points to the state rate, so look up the exact rate for the address.
- What is taxable varies by state. Many states exempt groceries or prescription drugs, or tax them at a lower rate, and some tax services that others don't.
- Online orders are usually taxed at the rate for the delivery address, not the seller's.
- Rounding is to the cent on the whole transaction; a receipt that taxes each item separately can differ by a cent.
- This is a sales tax, charged once at retail. VAT and India's GST work differently, collected at each stage of supply; the GST calculator handles GST.
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Sales Tax reference table
| State | State rate |
|---|---|
| California | 7.25% |
| Indiana, Mississippi, Rhode Island, Tennessee | 7% |
| Washington | 6.5% |
| Illinois, Texas | 6.25% |
| Florida, Pennsylvania | 6% |
| New York | 4% |
| Colorado | 2.9% |
| Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, Oregon | None statewide |
Sales Tax FAQ
- Multiply the price by the rate. A $45 item at 6.5%: 45 × 0.065 = $2.93 of tax, $47.93 in total. Or multiply the price by (1 + rate) to get the total in one step: 45 × 1.065 = 47.925, rounded to $47.93.
- Divide the total by (1 + rate). A $107 total at 7%: 107 ÷ 1.07 = $100 before tax, so $7 was tax. Choose 'Including tax' above.
- Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon have no statewide sales tax. Some Alaska boroughs and towns charge a local sales tax.
- It depends on the state and on how shipping is charged. Some states tax delivery when it is part of the sale of taxable goods, others exempt separately stated shipping. Check the rules for the delivery state.
- Because counties, cities and special districts add their own rates, and the receipt shows the combined total. California's base is 7.25%, but many places there charge 8–10% or more once local taxes are added.