USA Sales Tax Calculator

Sales tax is a percentage of the pre-tax price, so the calculation is one multiplication once you know your combined rate. The formula is:

Total = Amount × (1 + Rate / 100)

Follow these steps on any basic calculator:

1. 1. Find the combined rate —add the state base rate to the local rate for the purchase address. In Florida that is 6.00% + 1.02% average local = 7.02%.
2. 2. Convert the rate —divide by 100: 7.02 / 100 = 0.0702.
3. 3. Add one —1 + 0.0702 = 1.0702. This single multiplier carries both the tax and the original price.
4. 4. Multiply —$100.00 × 1.0702 = $107.02 total, which means $7.02 of tax on a $100.00 purchase.

The same math works at any size: $49.99 at an 8.25% combined rate gives $49.99 × 1.0825 = $54.11, so the tax was $4.12. The calculator at the top of this page does every step for you — enter the amount, pick the state, and read the state tax, local surtax, total tax, and final price in one monospace breakdown.

Reverse sales tax recovers the original sticker price from a tax-inclusive receipt total. Divide the total you paid by one plus the combined rate expressed as a decimal:

Pre-Tax Amount = Total / (1 + Rate / 100)

Worked example: you paid $107.00 and the combined rate was 7%. Divide $107.00 by 1.07 to get a $100.00 pre-tax base, so the tax embedded in the receipt was $107.00 − $100.00 = $7.00. The same method works for any rate — a $110.00 total at 10% gives $110.00 / 1.10 = $100.00 base plus $10.00 tax. To find the tax portion directly, subtract the pre-tax amount from the total. Use the Reverse Tax tab in the calculator above to run the formula automatically: enter the total you paid, set the state and local rates, and it returns the pre-tax price with the state and local tax split. The#reverseURL hash opens any calculator directly in reverse mode.

Everyday shopping — a grocery run, a new jacket, a phone charger bought online — follows the same three-number routine: taxable amount, combined rate, tax. On a basic calculator with a percent key, type the taxable amount, press ×, enter the rate, then press %: the display shows the tax. Press + and the original amount to get the grand total. On a calculator without a percent key, divide the rate by 100, multiply by the amount, then add the amount back.

Before you add anything, confirm what is actually taxable in your state. Prescription medicine is exempt everywhere, most states exempt unprepared groceries, and a handful exempt clothing — so a $200 grocery-plus-apparel haul in Pennsylvania rings up tax-free while the same cart in Washington pays the full combined rate. Always subtract exempt items from the taxable base first, then apply the rate to what remains. Coupon discounts generally reduce the taxable base; shipping is taxable in some states and not others.

For a delivered order, the destination address usually controls the rate — online marketplaces now calculate it at checkout. When you need an exact figure rather than a register receipt, use the calculator at the top of this page or anystate sales tax calculatorin the directory above for a cent-accurate breakdown.

Nexus is the connection — physical or economic — that obliges a business to collect a state's sales tax. Before the Supreme Court's 2018 South Dakota v. Wayfairdecision, a seller generally needed a physical presence: a store, warehouse, employee, or inventory in the state. Today every state with a sales tax also has an economic nexus rule, most commonly triggered by roughly $100,000 in sales or 200 separate transactions in the state during a 12-month period, though the exact threshold varies by state. Marketplace facilitators such as large online marketplaces collect tax on behalf of their third-party sellers, so small sellers often inherit compliance through the platform.

Nexus determines who collects, not where the tax rate comes from. Most states are destination-based: an online order is taxed at the buyer's ship-to address, so the county, city, and district rates of the destination apply. A smaller group — including California, Texas, Illinois, and Pennsylvania — uses origin-based sourcing for many in-state sales, taxing at the seller's location. Interstate sales into those states from an out-of-state seller are still typically taxed at the destination once nexus exists. Buyers owe use tax on taxable purchases from out-of-state sellers that did not collect, which is why cross-border and online shoppers should verify the rate for the exact delivery address rather than relying on a statewide average.

Five states levy no statewide sales tax, remembered by the acronym NOMAD: New Hampshire (NH), Oregon (OR), Montana (MT), Alaska (AK), and Delaware (DE). Shoppers in New Hampshire, Oregon, Montana, and Delaware generally pay $0 in sales tax on everyday retail goods — groceries, clothing, and electronics ring up at sticker price. Each state still funds government in other ways, such as property taxes, excise taxes on fuel, alcohol, and tobacco, or (in Delaware's case) a gross receipts tax paid by businesses.

Alaska is the important exception. It has no state sales tax, but boroughs and municipalities may levy their own local sales taxes, averaging 1.76% statewide and reaching 5% in some communities — so Juneau and Anchorage-area purchases can still carry a local charge while remote areas charge nothing. Elsewhere the exceptions are narrower: Montana communities may add local resort and option taxes, New Hampshire taxes prepared meals, restaurant food, lodging, and car rentals under separate excise-style taxes, and Oregon has no sales tax of any kind. Cross-border shoppers should also remember that use tax applies when you bring taxable goods home into a taxing state.

You can still run any NOMAD state through the calculator above — with a 0% combined rate the total equals the pre-tax price, which is a quick way to confirm nothing was added at checkout.