Sales Tax Calculator

How it's calculated

Tax owed is the price times your tax rate; total is the price plus that tax. Rates vary by state, county, and even city, so plug in whatever rate applies where you're buying — this handles the math either way.

Sales tax vs. VAT

This calculator assumes US-style sales tax, which is added on top of a listed pre-tax price at checkout. That's different from VAT (used across the EU, UK, and many other countries), which is already baked into the sticker price you see — if you're working backward from a VAT-inclusive price to find the tax portion, treating that total as the "price before tax" here won't give the right number; you'd need to divide the rate out rather than add it on.

Working backward from a receipt total

If you already know the final total and the tax rate but need the pre-tax price — reconstructing a receipt, or checking a bill — that's the reverse of this calculator's math: pre-tax price equals total divided by (1 plus the tax rate as a decimal). A $108 total at 8% tax implies a pre-tax price of $108 ÷ 1.08 = $100 exactly, which is also a quick way to sanity-check that a receipt's tax line matches its stated rate.

Why the rate varies so much by location

US sales tax isn't one number — it's typically a state rate plus separate county and city rates layered on top, which is why the same purchase can be taxed differently a few miles apart, and why a hotel or restaurant bill sometimes carries an extra tourism or occupancy tax beyond the general local rate. A handful of US states charge no state sales tax at all. There's no universal rate this calculator can assume correctly, which is exactly why the rate here is a field you fill in rather than a fixed default.

Not everything gets taxed the same way

Many jurisdictions exempt or reduce tax on specific categories — groceries, prescription medication, and clothing under a certain price are common exemptions in various US states — while other items can carry an extra tax on top of the general rate, like the "sin taxes" applied to alcohol, tobacco, and sometimes soft drinks. This calculator assumes a single flat rate applied to the whole price, which covers the vast majority of everyday retail purchases correctly but won't reflect a mixed cart with both taxed and exempt items — for that, it's more accurate to run the taxable portion of a receipt through separately from the exempt portion.