Sales Tax Calculator

What is a Sales Tax Calculator?

A sales tax calculator computes the tax owed on a purchase and the final total price you pay at the register. Enter any pre-tax amount and any tax rate, and the tool instantly shows both the tax amount and the total — no mental math required.

Sales tax is a consumption tax collected by state and local governments on the sale of goods and some services. Because rates vary by state, county, and city, this calculator accepts any percentage, so it works for every jurisdiction in the United States and for purchases of any size, from a cup of coffee to a new car.

How to Use

1. Enter the purchase amount before tax in dollars.
2. Input the applicable sales tax rate as a percentage (for example, 7.25 for a 7.25% rate).
3. Click Calculate to see the tax amount and the total price including tax.

Not sure which rate to enter? Add your state, county, and city rates together to get the combined rate, or look up the rate for your ZIP code on your state revenue department's website.

The Sales Tax Formula

The math behind the calculator is straightforward. The tax amount is the pre-tax price multiplied by the rate, and the total price is the pre-tax price multiplied by one plus the rate:

Tax = Price × Rate

Total = Price × (1 + Rate)

• Price — the cost of the item before any tax is added.
• Rate — the sales tax rate expressed as a decimal (7.25% becomes 0.0725).
• Tax — the dollar amount of sales tax added to the purchase.
• Total — the final amount you pay at the register, including tax.

Reverse Calculation: Removing Tax from a Total

If a price already includes tax — common on receipts that show a single total — you can work backward to find the pre-tax amount by dividing by one plus the rate:

Net Price = Total ÷ (1 + Rate)

The tax portion is then simply Total − Net Price. This reverse calculation is useful for expense reports, bookkeeping, and verifying that a store charged the correct rate.

Worked Example: $1,200 at 7.25%

Suppose you buy a laptop priced at $1,200 in a jurisdiction with a 7.25% sales tax rate:

1. Convert the rate to a decimal: 7.25% ÷ 100 = 0.0725.
2. Tax = $1,200 × 0.0725 = $87.00.
3. Total = $1,200 + $87.00 = $1,287.00.

To check the reverse, take the tax-inclusive total of $1,287.00 and divide by 1.0725: $1,287.00 ÷ 1.0725 = $1,200.00, and the embedded tax is $1,287.00 − $1,200.00 = $87.00 — exactly where we started.

Sales Tax Reference Table

The table below shows the tax amount and total price for common purchase amounts at five typical rates. Each cell shows the tax first, then the total price.

State and Local Combined Rates

The rate you pay at the register is usually a combination of several layers: a statewide rate, plus optional county, city, and special-district taxes. For example, a 6% state rate with a 1% county tax and a 0.5% city tax produces a combined rate of 7.5%. Five states — Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, and Oregon — have no statewide sales tax, while some large cities have combined rates above 10%. Always use the combined rate for the location where the purchase is delivered or picked up, not just the statewide rate.

Items Often Exempt from Sales Tax

Most states exempt necessities or tax them at a reduced rate. Common exemptions include:

• Groceries — unprepared food is tax-free or taxed at a reduced rate in most states, though restaurant meals and prepared foods are usually fully taxable.
• Prescription medications — exempt in nearly every state that levies a sales tax.
• Clothing — exempt in some states, sometimes only below a price threshold.
• Services — many states tax physical goods but not labor or professional services.

Exemption rules vary widely from state to state, so check with your state's department of revenue if you are unsure whether an item is taxable.

Use Tax on Online Purchases

When you buy something online or from out of state and the seller does not collect your state's sales tax, you generally owe an equivalent use tax at the same rate. Most large online retailers now collect sales tax at checkout, but if a seller does not, many states ask residents to report and pay use tax on their annual income tax return. Because the use tax rate equals your sales tax rate, you can use this calculator to estimate what you owe.

Planning a purchase? Use our Discount Calculator to find the sale price first, then run that price through this calculator to add tax. Shopping or doing business in Europe? Our VAT Calculator handles value-added tax with both add and remove modes.

Frequently Asked Questions