Sales Tax Calculator

What is Sales Tax Calculator?

Sales Tax Calculator computes tax amounts and tax-inclusive prices for US state and local sales taxes, supporting combined state plus county plus city rates. It includes a database of state base rates and handles special categories with different tax rates — groceries, clothing, digital goods, and services that may be taxed differently or exempted depending on jurisdiction. The tool calculates both tax-exclusive (adding tax to price) and tax-inclusive (extracting tax from total) scenarios.

E-commerce businesses calculating multi-state tax obligations, accountants verifying tax computations, and consumers estimating purchase totals. The tool runs entirely in your browser — your data never leaves your device.

How to Use Sales Tax Calculator

1. Enter the pre-tax price or the total amount including tax
2. Select the state and optionally the city or county for local rate inclusion
3. View the calculated tax amount, effective rate, and total price
4. Check category-specific rates for items like groceries or clothing that may have different rates

Common Use Cases

• Calculating the total price including sales tax for purchases in different states
• Extracting the pre-tax price from a tax-inclusive receipt total
• Comparing effective tax rates across jurisdictions for business location decisions
• Computing sales tax obligations for e-commerce orders shipping to multiple states

Pro Tips

• Five US states have no sales tax (Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, Oregon) — but Alaska allows local jurisdictions to impose sales tax, so some Alaska cities still charge it
• Digital goods and SaaS are taxed differently by state — over 30 states now tax digital products, and the rules are evolving rapidly; if you sell digital goods, verify each state's current classification
• Use tax-inclusive pricing for international markets where consumers expect displayed prices to include tax — the tool extracts the tax component using the formula: tax = total - (total / (1 + rate))

Why Use This Tool?

• Privacy-first: All processing happens locally in your browser. No data is transmitted to any server.
• No installation required: Works in any modern browser on desktop or mobile.
• Completely free: No account, no credit card, no usage caps.
• Fast and reliable: Powered by modern Web APIs for near-instant results.

Related Concepts

Learn more about related topics: Use tax, Nexus, Tax-inclusive pricing, Economic nexus.

Frequently Asked Questions