Sales tax calculator
Enter the price and rate, get the tax and total instantly.
Use your combined state and local rate — it is on your receipt.
How do I calculate sales tax?
Multiply the price by the tax rate. At 7.25% — California's statewide base rate — a $50 purchase has $3.63 of tax, for a total of $53.63 (the exact tax is $3.625, rounded to the cent).
How do I take sales tax out of a total?
Divide the total by 1 plus the rate. If $107 includes 7% tax, the price before tax is 107 ÷ 1.07 = $100 and the tax is $7. Switch to "Remove tax from a total".
What is my sales tax rate?
It is the state rate plus any county, city and district rates, so it can differ from one town to the next. Your receipt or your state's department of revenue website lists the combined rate for an address.
Which states have no sales tax?
Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon have no statewide sales tax, though some Alaska cities and boroughs charge a local one.
Is sales tax charged on everything?
No — many states exempt or reduce the tax on groceries and prescription drugs, and some on clothing. Check your state's rules for what you are buying.
Is tax figured on each item or on the total?
It depends on the seller’s system and the state’s rules. With a 6.25% rate on three items of $0.45 each, taxing each item gives $0.09 while taxing the $1.35 total gives $0.08. The totals can differ by a cent because of rounding.
The two calculations
To add tax, multiply the price by the rate as a decimal and add the result: price × (1 + rate). To take tax out of a total, divide the total by 1 plus the rate. The tax rounds to the nearest cent, and the total is the price plus the rounded tax, as on a receipt. A combined rate is the sum of the state, county, city and any special-district rates that apply at the place of sale or delivery.
Worked examples
A purchase of $84.99 at a combined 8.875% rate has tax of $7.54 (84.99 × 0.08875 = 7.5429…) and a total of $92.53. Going the other way, a total of $107.00 at 7% contains a pre-tax price of $100.00 and $7.00 of tax. Subtracting 7% of the total instead gives $99.51, which is wrong because the tax is 7% of the price before tax and not of the total.
Common mistakes
Using the state rate when a local rate also applies understates the tax, and the combined rate can differ between neighboring addresses. Backing the tax out by subtracting the rate from the total, as shown above, is the second. A third is assuming every item is taxable, since many states exempt or reduce the tax on groceries, prescription drugs and sometimes clothing. Also, tax on online orders is in most states charged at the rate of the delivery address, and the Supreme Court’s 2018 South Dakota v. Wayfair decision let states require out-of-state sellers to collect it.
Sources: state departments of revenue (for combined rates and exemptions) and South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc., 585 U.S. ___ (2018) on remote sellers; the arithmetic follows from the definition of a percentage rate. Related: discount calculator, VAT calculator, tip calculator and percentage calculator.