How does the VAT Calculator work?
Gross = Net × (1 + rate). Pick your country above and the standard rate is already set.
Background & details
How to read the result
The calculator gives you two figures: the gross amount (what the customer pays) and the VAT amount (what you hand to the tax office). The net stays with you as real revenue. Quotes are usually written in net; consumer price tags are shown in gross. Mix the two up and your pricing is off by the whole tax rate.
Typical rates around the world
Standard rates usually sit between 17 and 25 %: UK 20 %, Germany 19 %, Ireland 23 %, France 20 %, Spain 21 %. Most countries also have reduced rates for food, books, medicine or hotel stays (the UK uses 5 % and 0 % for some goods). The calculator pre-fills the standard rate; enter reduced rates by hand.
Common mistakes
- Adding instead of extracting: 20 % on £100 is £20, but £120 gross contains only £20 of VAT – not £24. To pull VAT out of a gross figure, divide by 1.20, don't multiply by 0.20.
- Wrong rate: if an invoice mixes 5 % and 20 % items, calculate each line separately.
- Rounding too early: round the final result only, not every intermediate step, or the pennies drift.
Quick mental shortcuts
For a 20 % rate the maths is friendly: the VAT is exactly a fifth of the net, so divide the net by 5 (£100 → £20). To go the other way and find the VAT already sitting inside a gross price, remember that at 20 % the tax is one sixth of the gross (£120 ÷ 6 = £20), because 20 ÷ 120 equals 1/6. For a 5 % rate the VAT is one twenty-first of the gross. These fractions let you sanity-check a receipt without a calculator: if a £60 gross item claims more than £10 of VAT at 20 %, something is wrong. Knowing the rough share also helps when you budget – at 20 % roughly 17 % of every gross pound you spend is tax you cannot reclaim as a consumer.
Practical tips
If you are below the registration threshold and not VAT-registered, you charge no VAT at all, so your gross price equals your net price. On cross-border B2B sales the reverse charge often applies and the buyer accounts for the tax. Input VAT works in your favour: you reclaim the VAT on your purchase invoices and only pay the net difference.
When this tool is not the right one: import duties, mixed-rate invoices, or countries with stacked local sales taxes (such as the US, where the rate depends on state and city). In those cases use the specific local rule that applies.