Add sales tax to a price, or back it out of a receipt total to find what the item cost before tax. Enter an amount and a rate and the calculator shows the pre-tax price, the tax, and the total, rounded to the cent the way registers do. If you only know the pieces of your local rate, the builder adds state, county, city, and district rates together, and the reference table lists each state's base rate as a starting point.
Shopping a sale? The discount calculator applies percent-off deals and coupons before tax. For billing customers, the invoice generator adds a tax line to a printable invoice, and the percentage calculator handles any other percent math.
Frequently asked questions
How do I calculate sales tax?
Multiply the pre-tax price by the tax rate as a decimal, then add it to the price. At 7.25%, a $100 item has $100 × 0.0725 = $7.25 in tax, for a $107.25 total. Tax is rounded to the nearest cent, with half a cent rounding up, which is how most states require it to be computed. For a whole receipt, stores usually add up the taxable items first and tax the subtotal, so per-item tax can differ from the receipt by a cent.
How do I remove sales tax from a total (reverse sales tax)?
Divide the total by 1 plus the rate. With a $107.25 total at 7.25%, the pre-tax price is $107.25 ÷ 1.0725 = $100, and the tax is the $7.25 difference. Don't multiply the total by (1 − rate): that gives $99.47, which is wrong because the tax was charged on the smaller pre-tax amount, not on the total. This is useful for expense reports, bookkeeping, and checking whether a receipt was taxed correctly. Rounding to the cent can occasionally leave the backed-out price one cent off the shelf price.
Why is my sales tax rate higher than the state rate?
Most US states let counties, cities, and special districts (transit, stadium, tourism) add their own sales tax on top of the statewide rate, and the rates simply add up. A 6.25% state rate plus 1% county, 1% city, and 0.5% transit district gives 8.75% at the register. Use the combined rate builder to add the parts, or find your exact rate on your state revenue department website, which usually has an address lookup. Rates can differ between two addresses in the same ZIP code, so the lookup is more reliable than a ZIP-based table.
Which states have no sales tax?
Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, and Oregon have no statewide sales tax. Alaska allows local sales taxes, so many Alaskan towns do charge one, and some Montana resort areas levy a local tax. The reference table lists every state's base rate as published for 2025, but rates change — often on January 1 or July 1 — so verify with the state before relying on a number for pricing or filing. Some states also exempt or reduce tax on groceries, clothing, or medicine.
Is this the same as VAT or GST?
The arithmetic is the same: add the rate to a net price, or divide a gross price by 1 plus the rate to back it out, so the calculator works for VAT and GST too. The difference is in how the tax is collected. US sales tax is charged once at the final sale and is usually added at the register, while VAT and GST are collected at each stage of production and are normally already included in shelf prices. For an included VAT price, use "Remove tax from a total" to find the net amount.