Sales Tax Calculator

Combined rate = state rate + local rate | Tax = price × combined rate (rounded to two places first)

baseAmount

The amount the tax is worked out from. Adding tax, it is the sticker price before tax, which in the United States is the price on the shelf and not the price at the till. Removing tax, it is the total that was actually paid. The field is shared with the value added tax page in the same category because it is the same quantity in both places; what differs between the two pages is how many rates get applied to it.

stateRate

The state's own rate. It is charged on the sale of taxable goods and, in most states, on some services, and it applies uniformly across the state. It is the first of the two layers and never zero in a state that has a sales tax, but a handful of states have none at all, which is why the field accepts zero rather than requiring a positive number.

localRate

Everything the state's subdivisions add on top: county, city, transit, school and special district taxes, which is why this figure varies not only between states but between neighbouring postcodes. A single combined local figure is all this page can take, so the number to enter is the one that applies at the place of sale. It can legitimately be zero — a purchase outside any taxing district pays only the state rate — and it is often quoted to three decimals, which is where the rounding described below comes from.

combinedRate

The two rates added together, printed to two decimal places, and the figure the rest of the arithmetic actually uses. It matters because the two layers are always quoted separately and the sum is what has to be right — and because it can exceed 100% in principle, since each layer is capped on its own and no cap is placed on the total. Where the sum lands on a third decimal, as it does whenever a district rate is quoted to three places, the rounding happens here and once, before any multiplication.

taxAmount

The tax on the transaction, and the panel's main figure. In the addition direction it is the price multiplied by the rounded combined rate; in the removal direction it is the difference between the total and the price, so the three amounts always add up exactly. This is the figure to compare against the tax line on a receipt, and the one where a district rate quoted to three decimals will show up as a cent or two of difference if the till rounded differently.

netAmount

The price before tax. Adding tax, this is what you typed; removing it, this is what the division produced. It is the figure a resale or exemption certificate is about, and the one that belongs on a return as taxable sales — tax collected is not part of it.

grossAmount

The price with both layers of tax in it: what the customer hands over. In most of the United States this is not the number on the shelf, which is the whole reason a sales tax calculator exists as a separate thing from a price tag, and the reason a cash customer can be surprised at the till by an amount that was arithmetically correct all along.

Use it when you have a price and need the total, or a total and need to know how much of it was tax: working out what a purchase will cost before reaching the till, checking that the tax on a receipt matches the rate that should apply where you are, or finding the taxable sales figure inside a gross total on a return. It is also the page to use when the local layer is the part you do not know, because entering the state rate and reading the combined rate off the panel shows how much of the total is the local addition — and if that figure looks wrong, the rate you were given is for somewhere else. What it cannot do is tell you whether a particular item is taxable: states exempt categories ranging from groceries to clothing to digital goods, and which ones are exempt is a question about the item and the state, not about arithmetic.

1. The default: 100 with 6.25% state and 2% local

   1. Combined rate: 6.25 + 2 = 8.25%
   2. Tax: 100 × 8.25 ÷ 100 = 8.25
   3. Total: 100 + 8.25 = 108.25

   Both layers are in the parameters and only one figure is used by the arithmetic, which is what the last row of the panel is showing. Nothing here could be worked out from the state rate alone: 6.25% of 100 is 6.25, and the extra 2.00 is the local layer, which is why a receipt from one postcode does not reconcile with a rate table from another.

2. A district rate with three decimals: 1,000 at 6.25% plus 0.125%

   1. Combined rate: 6.25 + 0.125 = 6.375%, rounded to 6.38%
   2. Tax: 1,000 × 6.38 ÷ 100 = 63.80
   3. Total: 1,000 + 63.80 = 1,063.80

   The example that shows why the combined rate is rounded before it is used. Multiplying by the unrounded 6.375% gives 63.75, five cents less; the page gives 63.80, and the last row shows 6.38% so the two agree. A till has to produce a whole number of cents, so it rounds somewhere, and rounding the rate once at the start is more predictable than rounding a product to a fraction of a cent at the end. Expect a receipt to differ by a cent or two when the shop's system rounds the other way.

3. The same figures backwards: 108.25 including 8.25%

   1. Combined rate: 6.25 + 2 = 8.25%
   2. Price before tax: 108.25 ÷ 1.0825 = 100
   3. Tax: 108.25 − 100 = 8.25

   All four figures match the first example, because the combined rate divides out cleanly here. The division is the part that goes wrong most often: taking 8.25% off 108.25 by subtraction gives 99.32 and a tax of 8.93, both wrong, for the same reason a value added tax comes out wrong that way. The tax was charged on 100, not on 108.25.

4. California's two layers: 200 at 7.25% plus 1.75%

   1. Combined rate: 7.25 + 1.75 = 9%
   2. Tax: 200 × 9 ÷ 100 = 18
   3. Total: 200 + 18 = 218

   The statewide rate plus a district tax, which is the ordinary shape of a Californian rate. Note that the local figure here is a typical district rate rather than a ceiling — the range runs from a tenth of a percent to two percent, and the actual rate depends on the district the sale takes place in, so two shops in the same city can charge different amounts if a district boundary runs between them.

5. State tax only: 250 at 4% and no local addition

   1. Combined rate: 4 + 0 = 4%
   2. Tax: 250 × 4 ÷ 100 = 10
   3. Total: 250 + 10 = 260

   A local rate of zero is not a missing value: a purchase outside any taxing district pays the state rate and nothing more, and the field accepts zero for that reason. It is worth checking rather than assuming, though, because the same state rate applies everywhere in the state while the local layer is where a delivery address or a collection point starts to matter.

6. A small purchase: 50 at 6.25% plus 2%

   1. Combined rate: 6.25 + 2 = 8.25%
   2. Tax: 50 × 8.25 ÷ 100 = 4.125, rounded to 4.13
   3. Total: 50 + 4.13 = 54.13

   Half a cent, rounded up, and there is no way to avoid it: 8.25% of 50 is 4.125 exactly, which is not an amount anyone can pay. Every small purchase in a state with a rate ending in .25 or .75 will do this, and the rounding rule the shop's system uses — up, down, or half to even — is the reason two shops with the same rate can produce totals a cent apart.

This calculator does the arithmetic and nothing else. It cannot tell you whether the thing you are buying is taxable, and in the United States that is most of the question: states exempt categories as different as groceries, prescription medicine, clothing under a threshold, newspapers and, increasingly, digital goods, and the exemptions differ from state to state. Nor does it know which rate applies where the sale is sourced. A local rate is not a property of a shop but of a taxing district, and whether a sale is attributed to the place the buyer is, the place the goods are delivered or the place the seller is depends on the state's sourcing rules — which is why two customers of the same online shop can be charged different amounts for the same basket. Nothing here covers use tax on out-of-state purchases, resale and exemption certificates, tax holidays, the special rates many states apply to prepared food, lodging, alcohol, tobacco or motor vehicles, or the differing treatment of shipping and handling. Two things about the arithmetic are worth expecting. The first is the rounding of the combined rate described in the examples: because district rates are frequently quoted to three decimals, the sum is rounded to two before it is used, which means a receipt from a system that keeps the third decimal can differ by a cent or two and both can be defended. The second is that there is no upper bound on the combined rate — each layer is capped at 100% on this page and the sum is not capped anywhere, because the sum is not something a legislature votes on. In practice no jurisdiction is remotely near that, and if the combined rate comes out somewhere implausible it is worth reading the two fields again, because a local rate entered as 2 instead of 0.02 is a mistake that produces a total nobody will query until it is charged. Finally, the rates in the table below are the ones in force at the time of writing in the two states named. Rates change — usually the local layer, usually annually — and the figure that matters is the one for the place the sale is sourced to.

How do I work out sales tax on a price?

Add the state rate and the local rate together to get a combined rate, then multiply the price by it. At 6.25% state plus 2% local the combined rate is 8.25%, so 100 comes to 108.25 with 8.25 of tax. Both layers go into one multiplication — nothing in the arithmetic treats them separately.

How do I take sales tax out of a total?

Divide by one plus the combined rate, then subtract to get the tax. A total of 108.25 at 8.25% gives 108.25 ÷ 1.0825 = 100 of taxable sales and 8.25 of tax. Subtracting 8.25% of the total instead gives 99.32, which is wrong, because the tax was charged on the smaller figure and not on the total.

Why does the calculator round the combined rate before using it?

Because district rates are often quoted to three decimals, and the sum has to become a number that can produce whole cents. Adding 6.25% and 0.125% gives 6.375%, which the panel rounds to 6.38% and then multiplies by — 1,000 of purchases gives 63.80 of tax rather than the 63.75 an unrounded multiplication would give. A till has to round somewhere; doing it once, to the rate, is the more predictable place.

What local rate should I enter?

The one that applies where the sale is sourced, which may depend on the buyer's address, the delivery address or the seller's location depending on the state. It is not a single figure per state: district boundaries run through cities, so two shops a mile apart can charge different rates. If you only know the state rate, enter it and leave the local rate at zero to see the floor, then check the actual combined rate for the address in question.

Is everything taxable?

No, and this is the part a calculator cannot answer. States exempt whole categories — groceries, prescription medicine, clothing below a threshold, newspapers, and in many states digital goods — and the lists differ from state to state. Some categories are taxed at a different rate rather than exempted, such as prepared food, lodging and motor vehicles. If the item is in one of those categories the tax on the receipt will not match the arithmetic here, and the arithmetic is not what is wrong.

Do I add sales tax to a price or is it already in there?

In the United States it is added at the till, so the shelf price is the one without tax and the amount charged is higher — that is why this page exists separately from a price tag. Most other countries display the price with the tax already inside it, which is what the value added tax page in the same category is built for. Choose the removal direction here when you have a total that already includes the tax and need the figure underneath it.

• Sales and Use Tax — the Texas structure this page is modelled on: a 6.25% state rate, local sales and use taxes of up to 2% added by cities, counties and special purpose districts, and a maximum combined rate of 8.25% — Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts (United States)
• Sales and Use Tax Rates — the California structure: a 7.25% statewide rate made up of the state, local and local transportation components, with additional district taxes of 0.10% to 2.00% on top, which is where a combined rate quoted to three decimals comes from — California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (United States)
• 中华人民共和国增值税法 第十条、第十一条 — the statute setting out China's value added tax rates, for the contrast this page is built around: China has no sales tax at the till, because the equivalent tax is levied once at each stage of the supply chain and is already inside the displayed price — State Taxation Administration of the People's Republic of China (China)