VAT calculator
Add VAT or take it back out — including the step almost everyone gets wrong.
Runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you paste is uploaded or stored.
Reduced and zero rates exist in every country listed — check the rate for your goods, not just the standard one.
VAT is calculated on the net amount and added to it.
What this tool does
It moves an amount between net and gross at any rate, and when you go from gross to net it also shows what the naive method would have given you.
That second number exists because this is the most common arithmetic mistake in small business. Asked to remove 20% VAT from £1,200, most people subtract 20% and get £960. The correct answer is £1,000 — you divide by 1.2. The gap is £40 on a single invoice, and it goes the same direction every time: you understate your net revenue and overstate the tax you owe.
The two rules
Adding VAT: net × (1 + rate). £1,000 at 20% becomes £1,200.
Removing VAT: gross ÷ (1 + rate). £1,200 at 20% goes back to £1,000, and the VAT portion is £200.
Notice that the VAT portion is a fifth of the net but only a sixth of the gross. That asymmetry is the whole reason subtraction fails.
Where the number matters most
Quoting. Business customers usually think in net figures and consumers in gross ones. Quoting the wrong one to the wrong audience makes you look either expensive or careless.
Marketplace pricing. A price the platform shows as gross has to be worked backwards before you can compare it with a cost. Get this wrong on a thin margin and a profitable-looking product is not.
Cross-border selling. The rate is the buyer’s country rate for digital goods sold to consumers in the EU, which means the same price yields different net revenue depending on where the customer sits.
Questions
How do I remove VAT from a total?
Divide by one plus the rate. At 20% that means dividing the gross figure by 1.2, not subtracting 20%. Subtracting gives an answer that is always too low — at 20% it undershoots the net figure by about 4% of the total.
Why does subtracting the percentage give the wrong answer?
Because VAT is calculated on the net amount, not on the gross. When you take 20% off a gross figure you are taking 20% of a number that already includes the tax, so you remove more than was added. The tool shows both results side by side when you remove VAT, precisely because this catches people out.
Which rate should I use?
The standard rate for your country is the default, but reduced and zero rates exist everywhere — food, books, children's clothing, medical supplies and public transport are common exceptions. The rate depends on what you sell, not on where the buyer is browsing from.
Is this valid for invoices?
The arithmetic is, but rounding rules and how VAT is shown on an invoice are set by your tax authority, and some require rounding per line rather than per invoice. Use this for pricing and quotes; use your accounting software for filed documents.
Does it work for sales tax too?
For adding tax, yes — the arithmetic is identical. For removing it, be careful: US sales tax is added at the till and is rarely included in a displayed price, so there is usually nothing to extract.