Sales Tax Calculator
Free sales tax calculator for all 50 states. Calculate the tax and total on any price — or switch to reverse mode to split a receipt total back into pre-tax price and tax. Pick your state to load its rate, then fine-tune to your local combined rate.
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How to Calculate Sales Tax (Step by Step)
- Step 1 — Find your combined rate: state base rate plus any city, county, and district taxes. Pick your state above for the base rate, then edit to your combined rate (it's printed on any local receipt).
- Step 2 — Convert to a decimal: 8.25% → 0.0825.
- Step 3 — Multiply: Sales Tax = Price × Rate. $100 × 0.0825 = $8.25.
- Step 4 — Add for the total: $100 + $8.25 = $108.25.
Reverse Sales Tax: Working Backwards From a Total
Pre-Tax Price = Total ÷ (1 + Tax Rate)Sales Tax = Total − Pre-Tax Price
Reverse mode answers the bookkeeping question: a receipt shows $108.25 — how much was the item and how much was tax? $108.25 ÷ 1.0825 = $100.00 item, $8.25 tax. The common mistake is multiplying the total by the rate instead of dividing ($108.25 × 8.25% = $8.93 — wrong, and it overstates the tax on every expense you book that way). If you're separating tax from hundreds of receipts, our bank statement converter plus proper bookkeeping beats doing it one receipt at a time.
Sales Tax Rates by State (Statewide Base Rates)
| State | Base rate | State | Base rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 4% | Montana | 0% |
| Alaska | 0% | Nebraska | 5.5% |
| Arizona | 5.6% | Nevada | 6.85% |
| Arkansas | 6.5% | New Hampshire | 0% |
| California | 7.25% | New Jersey | 6.625% |
| Colorado | 2.9% | New Mexico | 4.875% |
| Connecticut | 6.35% | New York | 4% |
| Delaware | 0% | North Carolina | 4.75% |
| Florida | 6% | North Dakota | 5% |
| Georgia | 4% | Ohio | 5.75% |
| Hawaii | 4% | Oklahoma | 4.5% |
| Idaho | 6% | Oregon | 0% |
| Illinois | 6.25% | Pennsylvania | 6% |
| Indiana | 7% | Rhode Island | 7% |
| Iowa | 6% | South Carolina | 6% |
| Kansas | 6.5% | South Dakota | 4.2% |
| Kentucky | 6% | Tennessee | 7% |
| Louisiana | 5% | Texas | 6.25% |
| Maine | 5.5% | Utah | 6.1% |
| Maryland | 6% | Vermont | 6% |
| Massachusetts | 6.25% | Virginia | 5.3% |
| Michigan | 6% | Washington | 6.5% |
| Minnesota | 6.875% | West Virginia | 6% |
| Mississippi | 7% | Wisconsin | 5% |
| Missouri | 4.225% | Wyoming | 4% |
Statewide base rates only — most states allow local city/county/district taxes on top, so your combined rate is often higher (California's 7.25% base reaches over 10% combined in some cities). Rates change; confirm your exact combined rate with your state's Department of Revenue before filing. This tool is for estimates, not tax filings.
Sales Tax for Business Owners: The Part That Gets Missed
If you sell taxable goods or services, sales tax isn't your money — you collect it in trust and remit it to the state on a schedule. Three places small businesses get burned: booking collected tax as revenue (inflates income and understates the liability — it belongs in a Sales Tax Payable account, which our free chart of accounts template includes), nexus surprises (selling into other states can create filing obligations there, especially for e-commerce), and missed filing deadlines that turn a pass-through tax into penalties out of your own pocket. Clean monthly books make every filing a report you print rather than a scramble — that's exactly what our bookkeeping service handles, sales tax liability tracking included.
Collecting sales tax? Don't let it become your money by accident.
Our Ex-PwC CA & ACCA team tracks sales tax liability properly in your books, keeps filings on schedule, and handles the multi-state nexus questions — so a pass-through tax never turns into penalties.
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