VAT Calculator — Add or Extract VAT

The two VAT formulas

• Adding VAT: VAT = net × rate ÷ 100; gross = net + VAT. At 20%, 250.00 → 50.00 VAT → 300.00.
• Extracting VAT: VAT = gross × rate ÷ (100 + rate); net = gross − VAT. At 20%, 300.00 → 50.00 VAT → 250.00.

The most common VAT mistake

VAT is charged on the net price, so the VAT inside a gross price is a share of the gross price that is smaller than the rate. At 20% it is 20/120 — one sixth, about 16.67% — of the gross. Taking 20% of a gross price overstates the VAT: for 300.00 it gives 60.00 instead of 50.00, and the “net” figure that follows is wrong by the same amount.

Rounding

The exact VAT often has more decimal places than a currency can pay. The calculator rounds the VAT amount to the cent and derives the other figure from it, so the net amount, the VAT and the gross amount always add up exactly — the first thing an invoice is checked for.

The rounding direction matters more often than people expect. Take a gross price of 99.99 at 20%. The exact VAT is 99.99 ÷ 6 = 16.665, exactly half a cent. Rounded to the nearest cent it is 16.67, leaving a net price of 83.32; rounded down it is 16.66, leaving 83.33. Both pairs add back to 99.99. Which one is right depends on the rule your tax authority or accounting software applies, which is why the direction is a setting rather than a fixed choice.

Shortcuts for common rates

The share of a gross price that is VAT is rate ÷ (100 + rate). For a few common rates that fraction is simple enough to use in your head:

So 480.00 including 20% VAT contains 80.00 of VAT (480 ÷ 6), and 420.00 including 5% contains 20.00 (420 ÷ 21). For a rate like 19% or 21% the fraction (19/119, 21/121) is not a round number, and that is where the calculator saves the effort.

Standard VAT rates in some countries

The preset list keeps to 20%, 10% and 5%; any other rate goes in as a custom rate. For reference, these are the standard rates in a few countries as of September 2026. Most countries also have reduced rates for items such as food or books, and rates do change, so check the tax authority for anything you are going to invoice.

EU rates can be checked against the European Commission’s VAT rates list and UK rates on GOV.UK; for other countries, use the national tax authority. South Africa's 15% rate is confirmed current by the South African Revenue Service after a planned rise to 16% was withdrawn before it took effect, and Ireland's 23% standard rate is unchanged for 2026.

Worked examples

• Adding 20% VAT to 250.00 net. VAT = 250.00 × 20 ÷ 100 = 50.00; gross = 250.00 + 50.00 = 300.00.
• Extracting VAT from 300.00 gross at 20%. VAT = 300.00 × 20 ÷ 120 = 50.00; net = 300.00 − 50.00 = 250.00 — the same pair of figures as above, worked the other way.
• Extracting VAT from 99.99 gross at 20%, rounded to nearest cent. The exact VAT is 99.99 ÷ 6 = 16.665, which rounds to 16.67; net = 99.99 − 16.67 = 83.32.
• Same 99.99 gross, rounded down instead. The VAT stays at 16.66 and net becomes 83.33 — one cent different from the nearest-cent version, and both pairs still add back to 99.99.

Edge cases and blocked input

• A 0% rate is accepted — VAT is then 0.00 and net equals gross, useful for zero-rated goods.
• Negative amounts are rejected; an amount must be zero or a positive number.
• A custom rate can be any non-negative percentage; there is no upper cap built into the form beyond what fits the input box.
• A zero amount returns zero for net, VAT and gross, with no error.
• Rounding is applied to the VAT figure only, never to net or gross directly, which is what keeps net + VAT equal to gross in every result.

Common mistakes

• Taking rate% of a gross price to find the VAT inside it — see "The most common VAT mistake" above. Use rate ÷ (100 + rate), not rate ÷ 100, when the starting figure already includes VAT.
• Assuming VAT works like US sales tax. VAT is normally already included in a shelf price and charged at each stage of a supply chain; sales tax is added once, at the till, on top of the listed price.
• Applying a country's standard rate to every item. Most countries have reduced or zero rates for categories such as food, books or children's clothing — check before assuming the standard rate applies.
• Ignoring which way rounding was applied when reconciling an invoice by hand — a one-cent gap is usually a rounding-rule mismatch, not an arithmetic error.

Limitations

This calculator does one VAT calculation at a time, at one rate. It does not total a multi-line invoice with mixed rates, and it does not know which category a specific product falls into for reduced or zero rates — that has to come from the relevant tax authority. Country VAT rates change from time to time; the table above was checked in September 2026 but should be re-checked for anything official. All the arithmetic runs in your browser; the amount you enter is not sent to a server.

Related calculators

For Japan's consumption tax specifically, with yen rounding rules, use the consumption tax calculator. To work out a price after a percentage discount rather than a tax, see the discount calculator. For general percentage questions — what percent one number is of another, or percentage change — use the percentage calculator.

Frequently asked questions