Compute any one of: Before-Tax Price, Sales Tax Rate, or After-Tax Price — given the other two. Also works for VAT/GST calculations.
A sales tax is a consumption tax paid to a government on the sale of certain goods and services. Usually, the vendor collects the sales tax from the consumer at the point of purchase. In most countries it is called value-added tax (VAT) or goods and services tax (GST). In some countries listed prices are before-tax; in others, listed prices already include the sales tax.
In the United States, there is no federal sales tax. All states except five impose statewide sales tax. The five states with NO sales tax are: Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, and Oregon. Sales tax is only enforced on retail purchases — most business-to-business transactions are exempt. Unlike VAT, U.S. sales tax is not imposed at the federal level.
The sales tax rate ranges from 0% to 16% depending on state and type of good or service. In Texas, prescription medicine and food seeds are exempt. Vermont has 6% general sales tax plus 10% extra on alcoholic drinks immediately consumed. Rules vary widely by state.
On average, sales tax impacts Americans by about 2% of personal income. It provides nearly one-third of state government revenue, second only to income tax. Sales tax funds public education, health care, and infrastructure projects.