Sales Tax Calculator
Calculate the sales tax amount and final total price for any purchase and tax rate.
About the Sales Tax Calculator
Sales tax rates vary widely by state, county, and even city, which makes the final checkout total hard to predict from the sticker price alone. This calculator takes the pre-tax price and your local sales tax rate and returns the tax amount and the total you will actually pay.
How It Works
The calculator multiplies the pre-tax price by the tax rate to find the sales tax owed, then adds that amount to the original price to produce the final total — the same arithmetic every point-of-sale system runs at checkout.
Sales Tax = Price × Rate; Total = Price + Sales Tax.
Worked example
Scenario: An $89.99 purchase with a 7.25% sales tax rate.
- Sales tax: $89.99 × 7.25% = $6.524, which rounds to $6.52.
- Total: $89.99 + $6.52 = $96.51.
Result: $6.52 of tax and a total of $96.51.
Sales tax depends on jurisdiction
This calculator applies the tax rate you enter. Real sales-tax obligations can depend on location, product or service type, exemptions, thresholds, and local rules, so use the applicable official rate for the transaction.
Tips and common mistakes
- Your total rate is often state plus county plus city; add them together before entering it.
- Some items, such as groceries or clothing in certain states, are taxed at a lower rate or not at all.
- Stores round tax on the whole receipt, so totals on multi-item receipts can differ from per-item math by a cent.
Assumptions & Limitations
- Assumes a single combined tax rate covering all applicable state, county, and city taxes for the location.
- Assumes the entire purchase amount is taxable at the same rate.
- Some categories of goods (groceries, prescription drugs, clothing in certain states) are tax-exempt or taxed differently — verify local rules.
- Does not handle tax holidays or tiered tax rates on large purchases.