VAT / Sales Tax Calculator
Add tax to a price, or pull it back out of a tax-inclusive total — pick a preset rate or type your own. Results update as you type, and the link always carries your numbers.
How this calculator works
Adding tax is straightforward: tax = price × rate/100, and the total is price + tax. Pulling tax back out of a total that already includes it is trickier — you can't just subtract the percentage, because that percentage was originally calculated on the smaller pre-tax price, not on the total. The correct reverse formula divides instead: pre-tax price = total ÷ (1 + rate/100), and the tax hiding inside is simply the difference between the two. Flip between "Add tax" and "Remove tax" above to switch which number you're starting from — the preset dropdown fills in common rates, and the rate field stays fully editable either way.
Worked example
Adding 7% tax to a $250 price gives $17.50 of tax and a $267.50 total. Going the other way, a $321 total that already includes 7% tax breaks down to a $300.00 pre-tax price and $21.00 of embedded tax — notice that simply taking 7% of $321 ($22.47) would give a wrong pre-tax price of $298.53, not the correct $300.00, because the tax was calculated on the smaller $300, not on $321.
Frequently asked questions
Does the United States have a national VAT?
No. The US has no federal value-added tax; instead, sales tax is set state-by-state (and often city or county on top), typically landing somewhere between 0% and about 10% depending on where you are and what you're buying. This calculator defaults the US preset to 7% purely as a round placeholder — swap in your actual local rate, since there's no single "the" US rate to point to.
How do I calculate the pre-tax price from a total that already includes tax?
Switch to "Remove tax" mode and enter the tax-inclusive total. The math divides rather than subtracts: pre-tax price = total ÷ (1 + rate/100). A common mistake is multiplying the total by the rate and subtracting that instead — on a $121 total with 21% tax, that wrongly gives $95.59, when the correct pre-tax price is $100.00, because 21% of $121 isn't the same as the tax that was originally added to $100.
Why are prices in the EU shown with tax already included, but US price tags aren't?
EU consumer law requires retailers to display the final price, VAT included, for anything sold to end consumers — no surprise addition at the register. In the US, sales tax is added at checkout, so shelf prices exclude it. That's exactly why EU shoppers search for "reverse VAT" calculators: the receipt shows the tax-inclusive total, and working out what was pre-tax and how much was tax needs the "Remove tax" mode here.
Are the built-in VAT rates always accurate?
They're the standard rates as of the 2024–2025 period for each country's most common goods — Spain 21%, Italy 22%, Greece 24%, the UK 20%, Germany 19% — but every one of these countries also has reduced rates for specific categories like food, books, or hospitality, and standard rates do change over time. For anything that matters, confirm the current rate for your specific good or country rather than relying on the preset.