How to Calculate Sales Tax on Purchases

Sales taxes are often not easy to calculate, particularly if you aren't in your home state, or have several items.

Things You'll Need

• Calculator
• Goods to purchase

Instructions

1. 

   The first thing to do is to find out how much tax you are going to be charged, which varies by state. A quick search on the internet can show you a full list of taxes by state. Certain goods such as medications or food are also taxed at different rates, and some counties within states have different tax rates.

2. 

   The next thing you need to do is to calculate the total cost of anything you are buying. Obviously this depends on what you are buying but for simplicity we'll use $100 as an easy figure to calculate.

3. 

   Next you need to calculate the tax itself. Assuming that you are buying goods all taxed at the same rate, and using 5% as a tax rate, the tax for goods totaling $100 would be as follows:

   100/100= 1 (1% of the total) 1x5=5 (5%). So the total to be paid will be $105

4. The easiest way to remember smaller amounts is simply to remember that the tax rate is for example 6%, meaning 6 cents per dollar. When making purchases of a couple of dollars, then the sales tax can be worked out quickly as 2x6.

Tips & Warnings

• Most states don't display prices with tax added, so always carry more than the ticket price.

• Tax rates can change each year, so be sure to check the tax lists every now and then.