VAT Calculator

Use this VAT calculator to add VAT to a net price, remove VAT from a gross total, recover totals from the VAT amount itself, compare common rates.

Finance planning estimate

Topic review: Michael Brennan

Small Business Finance Writer. Assigned as the finance topic reviewer for tax, debt, repayment, payroll, and business-finance calculators.

Reviewed 17 April 2026 Updated 17 April 2026 View reviewer profile Contact editorial team

VAT and GST calculator Add VAT to a net price, remove VAT from a gross total, or work backward from the VAT amount itself with country presets or your own rate.

Tax system preset

Mode

Net amount (before tax) Tax rate (%)

Preset guidance

UK VAT commonly uses a 20% standard rate, with some reduced or zero-rated supplies.

Use the preset first for the usual standard-rate starting point, then confirm the exact product and jurisdiction treatment before treating the result as invoice-ready.

Display currency

Change how totals are shown without altering the VAT or GST rate itself.

Currency

Enter a positive amount and a non-negative tax rate Provide a positive amount and a VAT or GST rate of 0% or higher to calculate the net, tax, and gross totals.

About this calculator

Finance planning estimate Reviewed 17 April 2026 Updated 17 April 2026

Topic review

Michael Brennan

Small Business Finance Writer. Assigned as the finance topic reviewer for tax, debt, repayment, payroll, and business-finance calculators.

Formula provenance

The methodology summary explains the formula family in use, and the source list points to the primary or authoritative references checked for this topic.

Methodology

This page calculates VAT using the standard gross, net, and tax relationships: gross equals net multiplied by one plus the VAT rate, net equals gross divided by one plus the VAT rate, and the VAT amount is the difference between gross and net. It also works backward from the VAT amount alone by dividing the tax line by the rate as a decimal to recover the net amount, then adding the VAT amount back to recover the gross total. The same relationships are used when checking 0% lines and when comparing the same amount across different VAT or GST rates.

Limitations

The calculator performs the tax arithmetic only; it does not determine which VAT, GST, or sales-tax rate applies to a specific product, jurisdiction, invoice, or filing situation.
Reduced rates, zero-rated versus exempt treatment, reverse-charge treatment, import VAT, mixed-rate invoices, and state or provincial sales taxes can all change the real-world tax treatment.
Discounts, delivery charges, invoice rounding rules, and line-by-line tax treatments can change the taxable base even when the headline percentage is known.
Displayed currency is a formatting choice and does not change the underlying tax logic or imply jurisdiction-specific compliance.
The VAT-amount-only workflow still depends on the stated rate being correct. A VAT line amount by itself is not enough to recover the rest of the invoice unless the tax rate is known.

Disclaimer

This calculator is for general tax arithmetic only and does not replace accounting, filing, or legal advice. Use the actual local tax rules that apply to your sale, purchase, or jurisdiction.

Primary finance sources

European Commission — VAT rates — Official European Commission VAT overview covering the EU VAT framework and member-state administration.
HMRC — VAT rates on different goods and services — UK government guidance on standard, reduced, and zero VAT rates and what they apply to.
business.gov.au — Register for goods and services tax (GST) — Official Australian government guidance covering GST registration and the standard 10% GST framework.
Government of Canada — GST/HST rates — CRA reference for the federal GST and province-specific HST rates used in Canada.
HMRC — VAT guide (VAT Notice 700) — Official HMRC guide covering VAT invoices, records, zero-rated supplies, and other practical VAT rules.
Canada.ca — Charge and collect the GST/HST — Official CRA guidance on GST/HST calculation, rates, and invoice handling.
New Zealand Inland Revenue — Calculating your GST — Official Inland Revenue examples for adding GST to tax-exclusive prices and removing it from tax-inclusive totals.

Change notes

Finance change note: the formula, tax or rate assumptions, source set, disclaimer, and planning guidance for this calculator were last reviewed on 2026-04-17. Report a correction at contact@calcipedia.org; substantive rule or assumption changes refresh both the reviewed date and the updated date shown on the page.

See our calculation methodology and editorial standards, plus the editorial contact route, for how this estimate is produced and corrected.

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Tax Basics

VAT calculator guide: add VAT, remove VAT, and separate net and gross prices

Value Added Tax, or VAT, and Goods and Services Tax, or GST, are consumption taxes applied to goods and services in many countries. This page also explains the main assumptions behind the vat calculator result, highlights the supporting figures shown by the calculator, and helps the reader use the estimate without overstating what a quick online tool can prove.

Adding and removing VAT

When adding VAT to a net price, multiply the net amount by 1 plus the rate as a decimal. A net price of 100 at 20% VAT gives a gross price of 120, with 20 representing the VAT component. This is the standard calculation used when prices are quoted exclusive of tax and a gross selling price needs to be shown.

Removing VAT from a gross price works in reverse. A receipt showing 120 inclusive of 20% VAT means the net amount was 120 divided by 1.2, which equals 100, and the VAT element is 20. This is why a VAT calculator, GST calculator, reverse VAT calculator, or tax removal calculator is useful for invoicing, bookkeeping, and price checking across different markets.

Gross = Net x (1 + rate / 100)

Multiply the net (pre-tax) amount by one plus the VAT rate expressed as a decimal to get the gross (tax-inclusive) price.

Net = Gross / (1 + rate / 100)

Divide the gross (tax-inclusive) amount by one plus the VAT rate to extract the net (pre-tax) price.

VAT amount = Gross - Net

The tax element is simply the difference between the gross and net prices.

VAT rates around the world

Standard VAT rates vary significantly between countries. EU member states must apply a minimum standard rate of 15%, though most apply rates between 19% and 27%. The UK standard rate is 20%. Australia applies a 10% GST, while New Zealand applies a 15% GST. Canada applies a federal GST of 5% on top of province-specific HST or PST rules. The United States does not have a federal VAT or GST; instead, sales taxes are applied at the state and local level.

Most VAT systems also include reduced or zero rates for selected essentials. In the UK, some food, children’s clothing, and certain medicines are zero-rated. Many EU countries use reduced rates on books, food, public transport, or hospitality. For an international audience, the main point is that this online calculator handles the maths, but the correct rate still depends on the country, product type, and local tax rules. That is why searches such as VAT calculator, GST calculator, sales tax calculator, and reverse VAT calculator all tend to lead to the same underlying percentage arithmetic.

Worked example: adding and removing 20% VAT

If a net price is 100 and the VAT rate is 20%, adding VAT gives a gross price of 120 and a VAT amount of 20. If you start with the gross amount of 120 and remove 20% VAT, you get back to the same net 100. That is why a VAT removal calculator and a VAT add-on calculator are really two views of the same tax relationship.

This sort of example matters because many users are not asking about tax theory. They are asking practical questions like “how do I add 20% VAT?”, “how do I take VAT off a price?”, or “how much of this total is the VAT amount?” A good VAT calculator page should answer all three clearly.

When the invoice only shows the VAT amount

A useful VAT amount calculator should also help when the number you know first is the tax line itself rather than the net subtotal or gross total. If the VAT amount is 20 and the rate is 20%, the taxable base is 20 divided by 0.20, which gives 100 net, and the gross total is 120. This is a common invoice-checking workflow when the tax line is visible but the supporting subtotal or the full tax-inclusive total still needs to be reconstructed.

The same logic works at other rates. If the VAT amount is 20 at 10%, the net amount is 200 and the gross amount is 220. If the VAT amount is 20 at 5%, the net amount is 400 and the gross amount is 420. That is why the VAT amount on its own is not enough: you also need the rate before the rest of the invoice can be rebuilt correctly.

This workflow is especially useful for bookkeeping reviews, partial screenshots of receipts, and supplier paperwork where the tax line is shown separately but one of the other figures is missing or obscured. It is still only arithmetic, so the legal treatment of the line item, the correctness of the rate, and the invoice validity still have to be checked separately.

Net = VAT amount / (rate / 100)

Use this when the VAT amount is known and you need to reconstruct the pre-tax base.

Gross = Net + VAT amount

Once the pre-tax base is recovered from the VAT amount, add the VAT line back to get the tax-inclusive total.

Quick VAT and GST examples at common rates

At 5%, a net amount of 100 becomes 105 gross and the tax amount is 5. At 10%, a net amount of 100 becomes 110 gross and the tax amount is 10. At 15%, the same 100 becomes 115 gross. At 20%, it becomes 120 gross. These short examples are useful because many users are really asking for a quick VAT percentage calculator or GST percentage calculator rather than a long explanation of tax policy.

The reverse calculation also changes with the rate. A gross amount of 110 at 10% tax contains 10 of VAT or GST and 100 net. A gross amount of 115 at 15% tax contains 15 tax and 100 net. A gross amount of 120 at 20% tax contains 20 tax and 100 net. This is why a reverse VAT calculator must divide by the inclusive multiplier instead of subtracting the headline percentage from the gross total.

Why 20% VAT is only 16.67% of the gross total

Users often notice that a 20% VAT rate does not mean 20% of the final tax-inclusive total is tax. That is because the 20% rate is applied to the net amount before tax, not to the gross amount after tax. If the net amount is 100 and VAT is 20, the gross total is 120, so the VAT line is 20 divided by 120, which is 16.67% of the gross total.

This distinction matters when you are reverse-checking receipts or trying to estimate how much VAT sits inside a consumer-facing price. At a 10% rate, the tax share of gross is 9.09%. At a 15% rate, the tax share of gross is 13.04%. At a 20% rate, it is 16.67%. The calculator exposes both the headline rate and the tax share of gross so you can see why the VAT fraction of a total is smaller than the rate printed on the invoice.

Practical VAT workflows for quotes, invoices, and receipts

The most common real-world workflow starts with a VAT-exclusive price. A business has a net amount for a quote, service fee, or product line and needs to show the VAT amount and VAT-inclusive total clearly. In that case, the net amount is the base, the VAT is the tax line, and the gross amount is the customer-facing total. This is the intent behind searches such as add VAT to a price, VAT-exclusive calculator, and VAT-inclusive price calculator.

The reverse workflow starts with a gross total that already includes VAT or GST. This often happens with supplier invoices, expense claims, reimbursement checks, and receipt reviews. In that case, a reverse VAT calculator or remove VAT calculator is used to recover the pre-tax amount, test whether the tax share looks plausible, and separate the VAT amount from the rest of the cost before it is posted to bookkeeping or approval workflows.

These workflows are also why invoice details matter. A proper tax invoice usually needs to show the supplier details, the taxable base, the tax amount, and the final total. The calculator can verify the arithmetic, but it cannot decide whether the invoice is valid, whether input tax is reclaimable, or whether a special rule changes the treatment.

Discounts, shipping, and 0% lines: set the taxable base first

A VAT calculator gives the right arithmetic only when the starting amount is the correct taxable base. In many situations that means discounts are applied before VAT is calculated, so the reduced net amount becomes the amount on which VAT is charged. If a discount changes the taxable amount, using the original undiscounted figure will overstate the tax even if the percentage maths is otherwise correct.

Shipping, delivery, packaging, and service fees also need attention because they can follow the same VAT rate as the underlying sale or a different tax treatment depending on the jurisdiction and invoice structure. Zero-rated lines can be checked with a 0% input to confirm that tax is not added, but zero-rated is not the same as exempt. Exempt supplies and special schemes can affect whether input tax is recoverable and whether the line should be treated as taxable at all.

For mixed-rate baskets or invoices, a single-rate calculator is still useful as a worksheet, but you should run each line or tax treatment separately. That is the safe way to check how much VAT sits in a total without assuming that one headline rate applies to the whole document.

When this calculator is not enough

Some VAT and GST questions are not solved by a single percentage. Reverse-charge transactions, import VAT, margin schemes, partially exempt businesses, province-specific PST or QST, and digital-services place-of-supply rules all need jurisdiction-specific treatment. The calculator remains useful for checking the pure net, tax, and gross relationships, but it should not be used as evidence that the chosen rate or scheme is legally correct.

If the transaction involves unusual invoice wording, mixed rates, exports, zero-rating conditions, or input-tax recovery questions, use the relevant tax authority guidance and, where appropriate, a qualified adviser. That is especially important when the numbers are being used for filing, reclaiming tax, or issuing invoices to customers rather than for rough budgeting.

Frequently asked questions

How do I calculate VAT on a price?

Multiply the net (excluding VAT) price by the VAT rate divided by 100. For UK standard rate (20%), a £100 net price has VAT of £20, giving a gross price of £120. Use the formula: gross = net × (1 + rate/100).

How do I remove VAT from a gross price?

Divide the gross price by (1 + rate/100). For a £120 price including 20% VAT: £120 / 1.20 = £100 net. The VAT element is £120 - £100 = £20. This reverse calculation is useful for reclaiming input VAT on business purchases.

What are the different VAT rates in the UK?

The UK has three rates: standard rate (20%) for most goods and services, reduced rate (5%) for items like domestic fuel and some energy-saving products, and zero rate (0%) for most food, books, children's clothing, and public transport. Some items are VAT-exempt.

Is VAT the same as GST or sales tax?

Not exactly. VAT and GST are both consumption taxes and use similar percentage-based maths, which is why the same calculator can handle either rate. Sales tax is usually applied differently at the point of sale and can vary by state or locality, but the gross, net, and tax amount formulas are still the same once you know the rate.

What is the VAT-inclusive formula for removing tax?

When you know the gross (tax-inclusive) amount and want to find the net: Net = Gross ÷ (1 + rate/100). For example, to remove 20% VAT from £120: £120 ÷ 1.20 = £100 net, with £20 being the VAT. A common mistake is to simply subtract 20% of the gross (£120 × 0.20 = £24), which gives the wrong answer because the 20% was applied to the net, not the gross.

Can I use a VAT calculator for GST and sales-tax-style maths?

Yes for the arithmetic, no for the legal tax rules. A VAT calculator and a GST calculator use the same percentage relationships for net, tax, and gross amounts once you know the right rate. It is still your job to confirm whether VAT, GST, HST, PST, or sales tax applies, and whether reduced rates, exemptions, or product-specific rules change the amount.

How do I add 20% VAT to a price?

Multiply the VAT-exclusive price by 1.20. For example, a net price of 100 becomes 120 gross, and the VAT amount is 20. This is the standard add-VAT workflow for quotes, invoices, and price checks when the starting figure is before tax.

Why can’t I just subtract 20% from a VAT-inclusive total?

Because the 20% VAT rate was applied to the net amount, not the gross total. If a total is 120 including 20% VAT, subtracting 20% of 120 gives 24, which is wrong. The correct method is to divide 120 by 1.20 to get the 100 net amount, then subtract to find the 20 VAT amount.

How much is VAT?

There is no single global VAT rate. The UK standard rate is 20%, EU member states must keep a standard rate of at least 15% but many charge more, Australia uses a 10% GST, New Zealand uses a 15% GST, and Canada uses a 5% federal GST with higher HST rates in some provinces. Product type, exemptions, and reduced-rate rules can also change the answer.

Do I calculate VAT before or after a discount?

Usually the discount changes the taxable base first, and VAT is then calculated on the discounted amount rather than the original sticker price. That is why invoice discounts, promotional discounts, and negotiated reductions should normally be applied before you work out the VAT line. If shipping or separate fees are involved, calculate each line using the actual tax treatment that applies to it.

Is zero-rated the same as VAT-exempt?

No. A zero-rated supply is still a taxable supply but taxed at 0%, while an exempt supply is outside the standard taxable treatment for that transaction. The arithmetic on a zero-rated line is simple because the tax amount is 0, but the compliance and input-tax consequences can differ from exempt supplies, so the distinction matters.

How do I check GST on a Canadian invoice?

Start by checking whether the price shown is before GST/HST or already tax-inclusive, then apply the province-specific GST/HST rate that actually applies to the supply. If the invoice is for taxable goods or services of 100 Canadian dollars or more, the supplier should include their GST/HST account number on the invoice or other business paper. The calculator can verify the arithmetic, but CRA guidance should be used to confirm the right rate and invoice details.

Can I use one VAT calculator for mixed-rate invoices or reverse-charge transactions?

Not as a single one-line calculation. A single-rate VAT calculator is best for one taxable base and one rate at a time. Mixed-rate invoices should be split line by line, and reverse-charge or special-scheme transactions need the relevant jurisdiction rules because the right treatment is a legal question, not just a maths question.

Can I calculate net and gross if I only know the VAT amount?

Yes, but only if you also know the VAT rate. Divide the VAT amount by the rate as a decimal to recover the net amount, then add the VAT amount back to find the gross total. For example, a VAT amount of 20 at 20% implies a 100 net amount and a 120 gross total. A VAT amount of 20 at 5% would imply a 400 net amount and a 420 gross total, which shows why the rate still matters.

Why does a 20% VAT rate mean only 16.67% of the gross total is tax?

Because the 20% rate is charged on the net amount before tax, not on the final gross total after tax. If the net amount is 100 and VAT is 20, the gross total is 120. The tax share of gross is therefore 20 divided by 120, which is 16.67%. That is why the VAT share inside a gross total is always smaller than the headline VAT rate.

What if the invoice shows a VAT amount but not the subtotal?

Use the VAT amount workflow with the stated rate. The calculator can reconstruct the pre-tax subtotal and the implied gross total from the VAT line alone. This is useful for supplier screenshots, partially visible receipts, and bookkeeping checks, but it still assumes the shown VAT rate is correct for the transaction.

Also in Consumption Taxes