Add sales tax to a price, or pull it back out of a receipt total to get the pre-tax price. Just type your combined state and local rate.
You grab a $49.99 thing off the shelf, get to the register, and it rings up as something else entirely, which is exactly the moment a sales tax calculator earns its keep. Prices in US stores almost never include tax. How much gets added depends on your zip code. There’s no federal sales tax, so every state picks its own rate, and plenty of counties and cities pile a bit more on top. Type your combined rate here and you’ll get the tax and the total. Got a receipt and want to know what the stuff cost before tax? Flip to reverse mode. That one trips people up more than you’d think.
How do I calculate sales tax?
Multiply the price by the rate as a decimal and add that to the price. That’s all a sales tax calculator does in the forward direction. A $49.99 item at 7.25%: 49.99 × 0.0725 = $3.62 of tax, so you pay $53.61. Going backward, divide the total by 1 plus the rate. A $107.25 receipt at 7.25% means the price was $100 before tax.
Sales tax formulas
Total = Price × (1 + rate ÷ 100)
Price before tax = Total ÷ (1 + rate ÷ 100)
In reverse mode, don’t multiply the total by the rate and subtract. The total already has tax baked in, so you’d be taxing the tax. On that $107.25 receipt the wrong way gives you $99.47 instead of $100. Divide instead.
Sales tax at common rates
| Price | 6% | 7.25% | 8.25% | 9.5% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $25 | $1.50 | $1.81 | $2.06 | $2.38 |
| $100 | $6.00 | $7.25 | $8.25 | $9.50 |
| $500 | $30.00 | $36.25 | $41.25 | $47.50 |
US rates are all over the place
Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon have no statewide sales tax. Alaska towns can still charge their own, though. California’s 7.25% is the highest statewide base rate, and once local add-ons stack up some US cities sit well past 9%. Groceries and prescriptions are exempt or taxed lower in a lot of states. Your state revenue department’s site will have the exact rate, usually with a lookup by address.
Where the register and your math won’t match
Stores usually figure tax on the whole receipt, not item by item, so a few cents can wander. Three $1.99 items at 7.25% come to $0.43 of tax on the total, but $0.14 each if you round per item, which is $0.42. Shipping is taxable in some states and not in others. And your phone’s map might put you in one city while your address is actually in an unincorporated part of the county with a different local rate. When the receipt looks off by more than a few cents, check the rate first.
How to use the Sales Tax Calculator
Pick a mode
Hit “Add tax to price” for a shelf price. Hit “Remove tax from total” if you’re staring at a receipt.
Enter the amount and rate
Type the dollar amount and your combined state plus local rate. Not just the state’s part.
Read the result
The big number is the total, or the pre-tax price in reverse mode. The tax itself sits underneath.
Do you pay sales tax on online purchases?
In most states, yes. For decades a seller only had to collect sales tax in a state where it had a physical presence, a rule the US Supreme Court confirmed in Quill Corp. v. North Dakota in 1992. That changed in 2018 with South Dakota v. Wayfair, which overruled Quill and let states require collection from remote sellers based on their sales into the state.
South Dakota’s law, the one upheld, applied to sellers with more than $100,000 in sales or 200 separate transactions in the state per year. Other states set their own thresholds, so whether a small seller must collect depends on where its buyers live.
Most states also passed marketplace facilitator laws, which make large platforms collect tax on behalf of the third-party sellers using them. That is why tax now shows up at checkout on most big shopping sites.
If a seller does not charge tax, the buyer usually still owes use tax to their home state at the same rate, often reported on the state income tax return. When you compare prices, apply any coupon first with the discount calculator, since tax is generally figured on the price after a store discount.
Can you deduct sales tax on your federal tax return?
Yes, if you itemize. On Schedule A, the Internal Revenue Service lets you deduct either state and local income taxes or state and local general sales taxes, not both. Sales tax usually wins in states with no income tax, or in a year with a big purchase like a car or boat.
You can deduct actual receipts, or use the IRS optional sales tax tables, which estimate an amount from your income and household size. Sales tax on a vehicle or similar large item can then be added on top of the table amount.
This deduction falls under the state and local tax (SALT) limit. The 2017 tax law capped it at $10,000. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025 raised the cap to $40,000 for 2025 ($20,000 if married filing separately), with small yearly increases through 2029, and reduces it for incomes above $500,000, though not below $10,000.
Other countries mostly use a value-added tax instead, collected at each stage of production and usually included in the shelf price. The VAT calculator handles those prices.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a federal sales tax in the US?
No. States and local governments set sales tax. Washington doesn’t charge one on everyday stuff you buy.
Which states have no sales tax?
Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon have no statewide sales tax. Some Alaska towns charge a local one anyway, so it’s not quite zero everywhere up there.
How do I find my local sales tax rate?
Go to your state’s department of revenue site. Most have an address lookup that adds up the state, county and city parts for you.
Is sales tax charged on the sale price or the original price?
In most states, on what you actually pay after a store discount. Manufacturer coupons can be a different story, depending on the state.
How do I take sales tax out of a total?
Divide the total by 1 plus the rate. At 8%, a $54 total ÷ 1.08 = $50 before tax, so $4 of it was tax.
Do I pay sales tax on online orders?
Usually, yes. Since the Supreme Court’s 2018 Wayfair decision, states can make large online sellers collect their tax even without a store in the state. If a seller doesn’t collect it, most sales tax states say you owe use tax on the purchase yourself.
Is shipping taxed?
Depends on the state, and sometimes on how the seller lists it. Some states tax delivery charges when the item itself is taxable, others don’t tax shipping at all. If you want to be exact, run the item and the shipping separately.
Sources and further reading
Related tools
Last reviewed: October 2026