What is the total price after tax?

Sales Tax Calculator

Estimate the sales tax to be added to the price of your product or service

Sales Tax Breakdown

Sales Tax Summary

$100.00

Product Price

8.00%

Sales Tax Rate

$8.00

Sales Tax Amount

$108.00

Total Price

How Sales Tax is calculated

Sales Tax = Price × (Tax Rate ÷ 100); Total Price = Price + Sales Tax

At a 8.00% sales tax rate, a $100.00 product costs $8.00 in tax, for a total of $108.00 at checkout. A 8.00% rate is in line with the roughly 7-8% U.S. average combined state-and-local rate.

Product Price

Product Price (Before Tax)

Tax Rate

Tax Mode

What is sales tax?

Sales tax is a percentage added to the price of goods and some services. The customer pays for it. The seller collects it and sends it to the tax authority.

Who is responsible for it?

The business does not pay this from its own money. It holds the customer’s tax and passes it on when due. But if the wrong rate is charged or the payment is late, the penalty falls on the seller, not the customer. That’s different from a corporate tax rate, which the business pays on its own profit, not on what customers hand over at checkout.

Rates are not the same everywhere. The US has no federal sales tax. Each state sets its own rate. Counties and cities stack their rates on top of that.

A shop in Austin and a shop in Houston charge different combined rates even though both sit in Texas. Before collecting anything, the exact combined rate for the business location needs to be confirmed.
Sales tax calculator formula: sales tax equals price times tax rate divided by 100, and total equals price plus tax, with a worked example

How to use this calculator?

This calculator does two things, switched with the “Price includes tax?” toggle.

1. Adding tax to a price. Leave the toggle off, then put in the product price and the tax rate. The calculator shows the tax amount and what the customer pays in total. Use this when pricing products or writing a quote.

2. Extracting tax from a tax-inclusive price. Turn the toggle on, then put in the total price and the tax rate. The calculator splits it into the pre-tax price and the tax amount. Use this when a price was quoted with tax included and the figures need to go into the books separately.

Retailers use the first most. Bookkeepers use the second when reconciling tax-inclusive receipts.

When do you need to collect sales tax?

Sales tax is collected when a business has a connection to a state. This is called tax presence.

If a business has a physical location in a state, it must collect sales tax there. This includes a store, office, or warehouse. Even storing inventory in a warehouse in that state counts.

For online sales, tax is required once a certain limit is reached. In many states, this starts at $100,000 in sales or 200 orders in a year. After crossing this, the business must register and start collecting tax in that state.

Groceries are often not taxed. Prescription medicines are usually not taxed. Some states also do not tax certain items like clothing. Before collecting tax, check what is taxable in each state where the business sells.

Frequently asked questions

Multiply the price before tax by the tax rate as a decimal: Sales Tax = Price × (Tax Rate ÷ 100). A $100 product at an 8% tax rate owes $8.00 in tax, for a $108.00 total at checkout.

Divide the total by 1 plus the tax rate as a decimal: Base Price = Total ÷ (1 + Tax Rate ÷ 100). A $108.00 tax-inclusive total at an 8% rate reverses to a $100.00 base price and $8.00 of tax — the same numbers as the forward calculation, worked backward.

No. The US has no federal sales tax — each state sets its own rate, and counties and cities can add their own on top. Two stores in the same state can charge different combined rates depending on exactly where they're located, so the rate has to be confirmed for the specific selling location rather than assumed from the state rate alone.

The customer pays it, but the business collects and remits it. The business doesn't fund the tax from its own money — it holds the customer's tax until it's due, then passes it on to the tax authority. If the wrong rate is charged or a payment is late, the penalty falls on the business, not the customer.