Add or Remove VAT With a Free Calculator
Enter a price and VAT rate to calculate the tax amount, gross price or net price instantly.
VAT Calculator
VAT works in both directions once you know the rate — add it to a net price to see what a customer actually pays, or strip it out of a gross price to find the underlying amount and the tax portion, which is exactly what this calculator does either way.
How does this calculator add or remove VAT?
To add VAT: gross price = net price × (1 + rate) — enter the price before VAT and the rate, and it calculates the tax amount and the final price including VAT. To remove VAT from a price that already includes it: net price = gross price ÷ (1 + rate) — for example, dividing by 1.20 backs out a 20% VAT rate to find the original price and the VAT amount separately. Switch between the two modes depending on whether the number you're starting with already has VAT baked in.
What's the difference between VAT-inclusive and VAT-exclusive pricing?
A VAT-exclusive price is the amount before tax is added; a VAT-inclusive price already has VAT built into the total, which is what most consumer-facing prices in VAT countries actually show. Knowing which one you're starting with determines whether you should be adding VAT or working backward to remove it.
Which VAT rate should you use, and does it vary by country?
Enter your own country or region's current VAT rate — this calculator doesn't look one up automatically, since rates are set individually by each country and can also vary by the specific type of product or service. The math itself is exact for whatever price and rate you enter; it doesn't determine whether a given transaction is legally subject to VAT in the first place, which depends on local tax rules.
Does this work for sales tax too, and is VAT the same thing as sales tax?
Yes — the arithmetic is identical, so just enter your local sales tax rate instead of a VAT rate. The two aren't quite the same tax, though: both are consumption taxes, but VAT is collected in stages throughout the supply chain as a product moves from raw material to finished sale, while sales tax is typically collected only once, at the final point of sale to the consumer.
Where did VAT actually come from?
Unlike sales tax, which evolved gradually in many countries, VAT has a specific inventor and a specific birthdate: French tax official and engineer Maurice Lauré designed it in 1954 as a fix for a tax system France's businesses despised — a "cascading" production tax that got charged again and again at every stage a product passed through on its way to the shelf. Lauré's idea was to have every business in the chain account for the tax on the value it added, rather than the full price each time, and it was signed into law by President René Coty on April 10, 1954. It worked well enough that most of the world eventually copied it — VAT (or the same idea under a different name, like GST) is now used by more than 170 countries, though notably not the United States, which still relies on state and local sales tax instead.
Is VAT Calculator free to use?
Yes. VAT Calculator is completely free, with no sign-up and no usage limits.
Do I need to install any software?
No. VAT Calculator runs directly in your web browser — nothing to download or install.
Is my data kept private?
Everything happens on your device. We never receive or store the file or text you enter into VAT Calculator.