VAT Calculator

How to use this calculator

1. Fill in any two of the four: VAT rate, net price, gross price, tax amount.
2. Leave the other two blank — those are the ones worked out.
3. Press Calculate VAT to see all four figures together, with the two the calculator supplied marked worked out.

There is no mode to choose. The blank boxes are the mode, which means the tool can never be set to one thing while you are typing another.

The six questions this answers

A VAT sale is two equations — tax = net × rate and gross = net + tax — so any two of the four figures fix the other two. That gives six ways in.

• Rate + net price. Invoicing: 1,200 at 20% adds 240, so the gross is 1,440.
• Rate + gross price. Reading a receipt: 1,440 ÷ 1.2 = 1,200 net, with 240 of VAT.
• Rate + tax amount. Reconciling: 240 of VAT at 20% means a net price of 1,200.
• Net + gross price. Checking a quote: (1,440 − 1,200) ÷ 1,200 = 20%.
• Net price + tax amount. The gross is 1,440 and the rate was 20%.
• Gross price + tax amount. The net is 1,200, which is the figure your bookkeeping needs.

The mistake worth avoiding

To go from a VAT-inclusive price back to the price before VAT, you divide by 1 + the rate. You do not subtract the rate. At 20%, taking 20% off a gross price of 1,440 gives 1,152 — wrong by 48, because that 20% was a percentage of the smaller net figure to begin with. The gap widens with the rate: at 27%, Hungary's standard rate, the same mistake on a gross of 1,270 gives 927.10 instead of 1,000, out by nearly 73.

Net, gross and the tax in between

The net price is what the seller keeps. The gross price is what the buyer pays. The difference is the tax amount — money the seller collects on the tax authority's behalf and never owns. An invoice normally states all three, which is why this calculator shows all four figures rather than only the one you asked for.

How VAT differs from sales tax

VAT is collected in stages. A component maker charges VAT to a manufacturer, who charges it to a retailer, who charges it to you — but each business reclaims the VAT it paid, so only the final consumer bears the whole amount. That staged trail is why VAT is harder to evade than a single-point tax, and why it is the more common system worldwide.

Sales tax, used in the United States, is charged once at the final sale and added at the till rather than shown in the shelf price. The single-sale arithmetic is identical, so either calculator will give you the same numbers — but the systems, the paperwork and who reclaims what are quite different.

Rates vary widely

Standard rates across the EU run from 17% to 27%, the UK charges 20%, and many countries run reduced rates on food, books, children's clothing, medicine and public transport. Some goods are zero-rated, taxed at 0% but still inside the system, which is not the same as being exempt and outside it. Always use the rate that applies to the goods and the country in question.

Because rates differ everywhere, this calculator asks you for the rate rather than guessing it, and shows amounts as plain numbers with no currency symbol. These figures are for general use, not tax advice — check the current rate with the relevant tax authority before filing anything.