Sales Tax Calculator
This sales tax calculator runs in both directions. Give it a shelf price and a rate and it adds the tax to show what you pay at the register. Give it a receipt total instead and it works backward to the price before tax, the part most calculators leave out. Everything updates in your browser as you type.
Sales tax rates vary by state and city. 7.25% is the California statewide base rate, and local district taxes can push it higher.
Price before tax
$100.00
Sales tax
$7.25
Total with tax
$107.25
Examples
How to use
- 1
Choose a mode: add tax to a price, or pull it back out of a total you already paid.
- 2
Enter the amount, the pre-tax price in add mode or the receipt total in reverse mode.
- 3
Type your combined state and local rate, for example 7.25 for the California base rate.
- 4
Read the price before tax, the tax and the total, then copy or download the result.
How sales tax is calculated
Adding tax is a straight percentage. Multiply the price by the rate over 100, then add that to the price. A 49.99 dollar item at the 7.25 percent California base rate carries 3.62 dollars of tax and rings up at 53.61 dollars. The tool recalculates live, so you can check a price tag against your local rate before you reach the register.
Reverse sales tax: finding the price before tax
Working backward from a total is the question expense reports keep asking, and it trips up most people. You cannot take 7.25 percent of the total, because the tax was charged on the smaller pre-tax amount rather than on the total. The right move is to divide the total by 1 plus the rate over 100. A 107.25 dollar receipt at 7.25 percent breaks into a 100 dollar price and 7.25 dollars of tax. Taking 7.25 percent of 107.25 would hand you 7.78 dollars instead, a 53 cent overstatement that a reverse sales tax calculator exists to prevent. Switch the mode to Extract, paste the receipt total and the tool applies the correct division.
Sales tax rates by state
There is no national sales tax in the United States. Each state sets its own rate, cities and counties stack local district taxes on top, and the combined figure is what your receipt shows. California holds the highest statewide base at 7.25 percent, four states sit at 7 percent, and five charge no statewide sales tax at all. In big cities the combined rate often runs well above the state number, with Chicago at 10.25 percent and Seattle past 10 percent once local taxes count.
| State | Statewide base rate |
|---|---|
| California | 7.25% |
| Indiana, Mississippi, Rhode Island, Tennessee | 7% |
| New York | 4% (8.875% combined in New York City) |
| Colorado | 2.9% |
| Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, Oregon | No statewide sales tax |
For an exact result, use the combined rate for your address rather than the state base. Your state's department of revenue publishes a lookup, and any recent receipt from a local store prints the combined rate directly.
Where the pre-tax price matters
Freelancers and small businesses back the tax out of gross receipts before they book revenue. Expense reports often want the tax broken onto its own line. And when you compare prices across state lines, the pre-tax price is the only fair yardstick, since the same 999 dollar laptop rings up at 999 dollars in Portland and about 1,088 dollars in Los Angeles once tax is added. Reverse mode answers all three with a single paste.
Parameters
Every field of this tool can be prefilled from the URL. Use these query parameters:
| Parameter | Type | Default |
|---|---|---|
| amount | number | 49.99 |
| rate | number | 7.25 |
| mode | add | reverse | add |
Example : https://www.veltotools.com/finance/sales-tax-calculator?amount=49.99&rate=7.25
API
The same tool is available as a free JSON API, with the same parameters as above. No key, no sign-up.
Frequently asked questions
Updated Jul 21, 2026