How to Find Sales Tax Rates
Sales tax rates can be confusing because they are different in many locations. Knowing the sales tax percentage of an area in which you are shopping can be extremely helpful when you are trying to maintain a budget or stay under a certain price range.
- Determine sales tax percentage in the area you are making your purchase. Sales tax varies from city to city. You can find the correct percentage by checking with the Federal Tax Admission, either by a phone call or a website visit.
- Calculate the sales tax. You will multiply the total retail price of an item or items by the sales tax percentage. If you are doing this without a calculator convert the percentage into a decimal. For example, if the area's sales tax is seven percent and the item cost $10.00 you would multiply 10 by .07 for you sales tax total.
- Figure out your total. If you want to know the exact total of your purchase you then add the sales tax to the retail cost of the item. Using the example from step two, you would add $0.70 to $10.
- Skip a step if you would like. If you do not care to know the exact amount of the sales tax only the total of you item you can do a faster math technique to calculate. Staying with the above example, you can multiply 10 by 1.07 to find the total. This automatically adds the tax amount to the item amount.