SamCalculator

VAT Calculator

Calculate VAT, net price, gross price, and tax amount instantly. Add or remove VAT from any price using country-specific VAT rates.

VAT Calculator

Enter any two values — leave the unknowns blank

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Standard VAT / GST Rates Around the World

CountryLocal NameStandard RateReduced Rates
United KingdomVAT20%5%, 0%
GermanyMwSt.19%7%
FranceTVA20%10%, 5.5%, 2.1%
ItalyIVA22%10%, 5%, 4%
SpainIVA21%10%, 4%
NetherlandsBTW21%9%
BelgiumBTW/TVA21%12%, 6%
IrelandVAT23%13.5%, 9%, 4.8%
SwedenMoms25%12%, 6%
NorwayMVA25%15%, 12%
FinlandALV25.5%14%, 10%
DenmarkMoms25%—
AustraliaGST10%—
New ZealandGST15%—
CanadaGST5%—
IndiaGST18%12%, 5%, 0.3%
South AfricaVAT15%—

Standard rates as of 2025. Reduced rates apply to specific categories like food, books, hospitality, or essentials and vary widely. Always verify the current rate with the local tax authority before invoicing.

The Complete Guide to VAT

Value-added tax (VAT) is a consumption tax charged at every stage of production and distribution — but businesses reclaim the VAT they paid on their own purchases, so the burden ultimately lands on the final consumer. Roughly 170 countries use it, including the entire European Union and the United Kingdom. This calculator handles the four standard VAT questions in one place: add VAT to a net price, strip VAT out of a gross price, solve for an unknown rate, and build a VAT-compliant invoice with discounts and shipping.

How VAT Is Calculated

Forward: Net → Gross

VAT Amount = Net Price × VAT Rate. Gross Price = Net + VAT. A £200 service in the UK (20% VAT) bills as £200 × 1.20 = £240, with £40 of VAT.

Reverse: Gross → Net

Net Price = Gross Price ÷ (1 + VAT Rate). A £240 invoice at 20% VAT reverses to £240 ÷ 1.20 = £200 net. Use this when you only know the till total.

Six Ways to Use This Calculator

#1

Quoting a project

Enter your net day rate and the country VAT rate — the calculator returns the gross figure to put on a client quote.

#2

Reverse-engineering a receipt

Use Remove VAT From Price to back out the pre-VAT amount when expenses claim software only accepts net values.

#3

Comparing rate bands

Run Multiple VAT Rates side-by-side to see the gap between a reduced 5% rate (UK domestic energy) and the standard 20%.

#4

Building an invoice

The Business Invoice tool applies discount before tax, optionally taxes shipping, and prints a VAT-compliant grand total.

#5

Pricing for Amazon or Etsy

The Ecommerce VAT tool strips VAT from the listing price, subtracts marketplace fees, and shows true net revenue and profit.

#6

Cross-border sanity check

Swap the country preset to see how the same £1,000 quote looks in Germany (19%), Norway (25%), or India (18%).

Best Practices for Charging VAT

  • •Register before you cross the threshold. Each country sets its own VAT registration threshold (the UK uses £90,000 rolling turnover as of 2024). Track turnover monthly so you register on time and avoid backdated liability.
  • •Show net, VAT, and gross separately. A compliant invoice has to break the three amounts out — never show a single total without the VAT line.
  • •Apply discounts before VAT. VAT is charged on the net consideration actually paid, so a £50 discount on a £500 service is taxed on £450 — the invoice tool handles this in the correct order.
  • •Use the destination country's rate. For most B2C cross-border sales inside the EU, the destination VAT rate applies once you exceed the €10,000 OSS threshold. UK sellers outside the EU charge UK VAT for UK customers and zero VAT for exports.
  • •Keep digital records for six years. HMRC's Making Tax Digital scheme and EU MOSS rules require VAT records be machine-readable and retained for several years past the filing date.

Why VAT Math Matters

For a single coffee, a 20% VAT difference is a few pence — easy to ignore. For a £30,000 piece of equipment, it's £6,000 you have to find before you can reclaim it. Mispricing a quote without VAT can wipe out the profit margin entirely; quoting gross when you meant net hands a 20% discount to the customer.

For VAT-registered businesses, the stakes are higher still: undercharging VAT creates a liability that must be paid to the tax authority anyway, and overcharging can trigger an obligation to refund the customer. Getting the math right on the quote prevents painful reconciliation at the end of the quarter.

Tricky VAT Cases the Simple Formula Misses

Reduced and zero rates

Books, children's clothing, and most food are zero-rated in the UK; domestic energy is taxed at 5%. The standard 20% doesn't apply to every line on an invoice.

Reverse charge

For most cross-border B2B services inside the EU, and for construction services in the UK, the buyer accounts for VAT instead of the seller. The invoice shows £0 VAT but cites the reverse-charge rule.

Flat Rate Scheme

Small UK businesses can opt into a flat rate (typically 6.5–16%) on gross turnover, instead of tracking input and output VAT separately. The customer still pays 20%; the difference is yours.

Margin schemes

Second-hand dealers, art galleries, and travel operators often charge VAT only on the margin (selling price minus purchase price), not the full sale.

OSS / IOSS for ecommerce

EU One Stop Shop lets a seller file VAT for all 27 member states in one return. Import One Stop Shop covers low-value imports — the seller charges destination VAT at checkout.

Digital services

B2C digital services (streaming, SaaS, downloads) are taxed where the customer is, not where the seller is. EU MOSS and UK VAT MOSS were built specifically to handle this.

Core VAT Formulas

VAT Amount

VAT = Net Price × (VAT Rate ÷ 100)

Gross Price

Gross = Net + VAT = Net × (1 + VAT Rate)

Net Price from Gross (Reverse VAT)

Net = Gross ÷ (1 + VAT Rate)

VAT From Gross

VAT = Gross − Net = Gross × (Rate ÷ (100 + Rate))

VAT Rate (when net and gross known)

Rate = ((Gross − Net) ÷ Net) × 100

Effective VAT % of total

Effective % = (VAT Amount ÷ Gross Price) × 100

VAT vs Sales Tax vs GST

VAT (EU, UK, ~170 countries)

Charged at every stage; each business in the chain reclaims VAT on inputs. Shelf prices include VAT. Standard rates run 5–27%.

Sales Tax (USA)

Collected only at the final retail sale. Shelf prices are pre-tax. Rates vary by state and locality (0–10%+). No input reclaim — collected once.

GST (Canada, Australia, NZ, India)

A federal goods-and-services tax that works structurally like VAT. Canada layers PST/HST on top; India splits it into CGST, SGST, and IGST across states.

Common VAT Mistakes to Avoid

  • •Multiplying by (1 − rate) instead of dividing by (1 + rate). To remove 20% VAT from £120, divide by 1.20 (= £100), don't multiply by 0.80 (= £96). The Remove VAT tool gets this right.
  • •Quoting gross when the client expected net. B2B contracts are almost always quoted net of VAT; B2C is typically gross-inclusive. State which on every quote to avoid a 20% surprise at signing.
  • •Applying VAT to a discount-inclusive amount in the wrong order. VAT is charged on the net consideration paid — so apply the discount first, then VAT.
  • •Forgetting that some items are zero-rated, not exempt. Zero-rated supplies (food, books, children's clothes) still count towards your VAT registration threshold and let you reclaim input VAT — exempt supplies don't.
  • •Charging your home-country VAT to an EU customer post-Brexit. UK exports to the EU are now zero-rated; the import VAT is owed by the EU buyer (or by you if you use IOSS). Double-check the regime that applies.

How We Built This Calculator

All VAT math on this page runs locally in your browser using the standard formulas above — no API calls, no analytics tracking, and no logging of the values you enter. Country VAT rates are sourced from the European Commission's VAT rate database, HMRC, and national tax authorities; reduced and zero rates are noted where they apply. The page is built and reviewed by the SamCalculator editorial team and cross-checked against worked examples in widely used accounting and tax references. See our editorial policy for sourcing and the review process.

This page is for educational purposes only and is not tax, legal, or accounting advice. VAT rates and rules vary by country and product category and change over time — verify with the relevant tax authority before invoicing, and consult a registered tax adviser for any business compliance decision.

Frequently Asked Questions

Value-added tax (VAT) is a consumption tax charged at every stage of production and distribution, but businesses reclaim the VAT they paid on their own inputs, so the burden ultimately lands on the final consumer. About 170 countries use VAT, including the entire European Union, the United Kingdom, and most of Latin America. Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and India use a structurally similar tax called GST (goods and services tax). The United States is the largest country without a national VAT — it uses a state-level sales tax instead.

To add VAT to a net price, multiply by (1 + rate). A £200 service at 20% VAT becomes £200 × 1.20 = £240, with £40 of VAT. To remove VAT from a gross price, divide by (1 + rate): £240 ÷ 1.20 = £200 net, with £40 of VAT. To solve for the rate when both net and gross are known, compute (gross − net) ÷ net × 100. The smart calculator on this page handles all four directions automatically — enter any two values and leave the unknowns blank.

Divide the VAT-inclusive (gross) price by (1 + rate as a decimal). A £240 receipt at 20% VAT reverses to £240 ÷ 1.20 = £200 net, with £40 of VAT. A common mistake is multiplying by (1 − rate) instead, which produces a too-low net amount (£240 × 0.80 = £192). The Remove VAT From Price tool on this page does the math correctly.

Sales tax is collected only once, at the final retail sale to the consumer, and resellers buy tax-free with a resale certificate. VAT is collected at every stage of production, but each business reclaims the VAT it paid on inputs, so the net amount paid by the end customer ends up similar. Practically, US shelf prices are pre-tax (tax is added at the till) whereas European shelf prices include VAT. VAT is also typically a single national rate (with reduced bands), while US sales tax varies by state, city, and county.

VAT-inclusive pricing shows the price the customer actually pays, with VAT already baked into the displayed figure. Shelf prices in the EU and UK are required to be VAT-inclusive for B2C sales, so the £240 sticker on a kettle is the total the customer pays. VAT-exclusive prices are quoted before VAT and are common in B2B contracts, where the VAT line is itemised on the invoice and reclaimed by the buyer.

VAT-exclusive pricing is a net figure quoted before VAT is added. It is standard for B2B contracts (where the buyer reclaims VAT) and for advertising aimed at businesses. A £200 day rate quoted VAT-exclusive becomes £240 once 20% VAT is added on the invoice. Always state explicitly whether a quote is inclusive or exclusive — assuming the wrong convention can swing the total by 20% or more.

Yes. VAT-registered businesses can reclaim the VAT they paid on business-related purchases (input VAT) by offsetting it against the VAT they charged customers (output VAT) on their VAT return. If input VAT exceeds output VAT in a period — common for exporters and capital-heavy startups — the tax authority refunds the difference. Some purchases (entertainment, most cars, exempt activities) cannot be reclaimed even by a registered business.

Standard VAT rates around the world: United Kingdom 20%, Germany 19%, France 20%, Italy 22%, Spain 21%, Netherlands 21%, Ireland 23%, Sweden 25%, Norway 25%, Denmark 25%, Finland 25.5%. GST equivalents: Australia 10%, New Zealand 15%, Canada GST 5% (plus provincial PST/HST), India 18% (with 5%, 12%, and 28% bands). Most countries also have reduced rates (5–10%) for essentials like food, books, or hospitality, and a zero rate for exports and some goods.

A VAT-compliant invoice has to list at minimum: a unique invoice number, the supplier's VAT registration number, the date of supply, a description of goods or services, the net amount per line, the VAT rate and amount per line, and the gross total. The customer's name and address are required for B2B; the customer's VAT number is required for reverse-charge or zero-rated cross-border supplies. Keep a copy for at least six years (UK) or ten years (several EU countries).

In most VAT jurisdictions, shipping is treated as part of the supply and follows the VAT rate of the goods being shipped — so 20% VAT applies if the goods are standard-rated, and 0% if the goods are zero-rated (such as books in the UK). Separately-stated shipping is generally still taxable. The Business Invoice tool on this page includes a toggle for tax on shipping, so you can model both treatments.

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