How to use it
- Add tax to a price: enter the price and the rate (or pick a state) to see the tax and the total.
- Remove tax from a total: enter what you paid, tax included, to find the price before tax and how much of it was tax.
- Pick a state to see its 2026 state rate, average local rate and highest local rate, and use either the state rate or the combined average with one tap.
How it calculates
Tax is the price times the rate, rounded to the nearest cent with half a cent rounding up. The calculator works in whole cents and holds the rate to four decimal places (8.875% is exact), so there is no floating-point error. Taking tax out of a total is the reverse: it starts from the total ÷ (1 + rate), then checks nearby prices and keeps the one whose price plus rounded tax equals the total exactly. Because price plus tax rises by at least a cent for every cent of price, there is never more than one such price, and some totals have none.
State figures come from the Tax Foundation’s midyear 2026 table (rates as of July 1, 2026), the same table as in our sales tax invoice guide; the calculator’s list is generated from that guide, so the two cannot disagree. Average local rates are weighted by population, so a particular city can be higher or lower.
What we tested
On October 14, 2026 we checked the page’s own functions against exact fractions on 4,006 random prices and rates (0% to 15%, up to four decimals): every tax, total and reverse answer matched, including the 302 totals (7.5%) that no price can produce, and the state list matched the guide’s 51 rows (50 states and DC). In Chromium: $100 at 7.25% showed $7.25 tax and $107.25 total; $49.99 at 8.875% showed $4.44 and $54.43; taking 7.25% out of $107.25 gave $100.00 and $7.25 of tax; a $49.99 total at 8.875% was reported as impossible with $45.91 and $45.92 as the nearest prices; choosing Tennessee filled its combined average of 9.61% ($9.61 on $100) and the state-rate button switched to 7% ($7.00); a word in the price showed a message; the page fitted a 390 px phone with no errors.
| Example | Result |
|---|---|
| Add 7.25% to $100.00 | $7.25 tax, $107.25 total |
| Add 8.875% to $49.99 | $4.44 tax, $54.43 total |
| Remove 7.25% from $107.25 | $100.00 before tax |
| Remove 7% from $10.70 | $10.00 before tax |
| Remove 8.875% from $49.99 | no exact price: $45.91 (total $49.98) and $45.92 (total $50.00) |
| Add 7.25% to $0.07 | $0.01 tax (0.5075 cents rounds up) |
Exemptions (groceries, clothing, medicine and others, depending on the state) and how a retailer rounds (per item or per receipt) can make a real receipt differ by a cent or more; this is a calculator, not tax advice.
Frequently Asked Questions
Built by Derek Giordano · Part of Ultimate Design Tools