Free Online VAT Calculator

What the VAT calculator shows

This VAT calculator does the two jobs that come up whenever a price meets a tax: it adds VAT to an amount without VAT, and it takes the VAT out of an amount that already includes it. You choose the job, type the amount and the rate, and the calculator shows the net amount, the VAT and the total with VAT straight away.

VAT, value added tax, is part of the price of most things people buy in Europe and in many other countries. The customer pays it in the price, but it reaches the state in instalments: every business in the chain charges VAT on its sales and deducts the VAT it paid on its purchases, so each one pays tax only on the value it added. For a shopper, VAT is simply part of the price. For a business it is a calculation that has to be right to the cent on every invoice, quote and receipt.

The calculator opens with a 20% rate and no country, because the arithmetic is the same wherever you are and only the rate changes. If you need a specific country, the standard and reduced rates of five are built in: Ukraine, Germany, France, Spain and Italy. Everything runs in your browser, and nothing you enter is sent anywhere.

In this guide:

• How to choose the calculation, the country and the rate, and how to read the results
• The two VAT formulas, and why you cannot just take 20% off a total
• Standard and reduced rates in the five built-in countries, and the EU rules behind them
• The difference between a zero rate and an exemption
• Rounding to the cent, and invoices with several lines
• Small-business thresholds, VAT and prices, and VAT compared with a sales tax
• Three worked examples, common mistakes and the calculator’s limits

How to use the VAT calculator

At the top of the Your numbers panel is the Calculation switch with two buttons: Add VAT and Extract VAT. It decides what the amount you type means. In Add VAT the field is called Amount without VAT, and the calculator puts the tax on top. In Extract VAT the field is called Amount with VAT, and the calculator finds how much tax is already inside it.

Below the amount comes the Country row with six buttons: Ukraine, Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Other. Each country button shows its standard rate. Choosing a country does two things: it puts that standard rate into the VAT rate field and sets the currency, hryvnias for Ukraine and euros for the four EU countries. Other has no currency, so amounts appear as plain numbers that can stand for pounds, dollars or anything else.

The VAT rate field takes any value from 0 to 100% with up to two decimals, so 5.5 and 2.1 are fine. When a country is chosen, a row of Rates in this country buttons appears under the field, such as Standard 19% and Reduced 7% for Germany. When the rate in the field matches one of them, a short hint under the buttons says what that rate applies to. Other has no rate buttons and no hint.

The amount slider runs from 0 to 10,000 for euros and plain numbers and from 0 to 200,000 for hryvnias, but you can type a larger amount into the box. On phones the amount field has − and + buttons, and the rate is set with a slider from 0 to 30% in steps of 0.5.

Reading the results

The headline depends on the calculation. When you add VAT it is Total with VAT, with the rate in brackets, such as Total with VAT (20%). When you extract VAT it is VAT included, the tax inside the amount you typed. Under the headline a bar splits the total into Net amount and VAT, and the three figures below repeat the numbers: Net amount, VAT and Total with VAT.

Notes follow the figures. At a 0% rate the calculator reminds you that a zero rate is not the same as an exemption. For France and Spain it warns that some regions have their own rates or their own taxes. The last line gives the date on which the built-in rates were checked: Rates as of October 21, 2026.

The table below the results lists, for the chosen country, each rate, what it applies to, the VAT on your amount and either the total or the net amount, depending on the calculation. In Other mode the table is called Standard rates by country and shows your amount at the standard rate of each of the five countries.

Pin to compare keeps the current result. When you change the amount or the rate, the headline shows the difference, and a caption sums up the pinned result. Switching the calculation, or choosing a country with a different currency, clears the pin, so you never compare euros with hryvnias. PDF saves the inputs, the results, the rates date and the table, Share shares a link without your numbers, and Reset restores the defaults. On phones and tablets the results sit in a bar at the bottom of the screen; Details opens the figures, notes and buttons.

How VAT is added and extracted

VAT has one base: the amount without tax. The rate is always applied to it, and the total with VAT is that base plus the tax. That gives two formulas, one for each mode of the calculator.

Add VAT:      VAT = Net × r ÷ 100
              Total = Net + VAT
Extract VAT:  VAT = Total × r ÷ (100 + r)
              Net = Total − VAT

Here r is the rate in percent. At 20%, the first formula gives one fifth of the net amount, and the second gives one sixth of the total: 20 ÷ 120 = 1/6. Both describe the same proportion from opposite ends. A net price of 1,000 carries 200 of VAT, and a total of 1,200 contains the same 200.

Adding VAT can also be written as one multiplication: total = net × (1 + r ÷ 100). At 20% the multiplier is 1.2, at 19% it is 1.19 and at 5.5% it is 1.055. Extracting VAT is the reverse: net = total ÷ (1 + r ÷ 100). In other words, to remove VAT you divide the total by the multiplier; you do not multiply it by 0.8.

The calculator works in whole cents, so no step loses precision to decimal fractions. Only the VAT itself is rounded, to the cent. The net amount when you extract and the total when you add come from a subtraction or an addition, so the three numbers always agree to the cent.

VAT rates by country in 2026

In the European Union, VAT follows the common rules of Council Directive 2006/112/EC, but each country sets its own rates. The directive sets the frame: since an amendment in 2018, the standard rate shall not be lower than 15%, and the reduced rates are generally no lower than 5%. Some countries also keep lower, super-reduced rates for short lists of goods, such as 2.1% in France and 4% in Spain and Italy.

These are the rates in force on 21 October 2026, checked against national sources and the European Commission’s Your Europe overview. The calculator shows that date under the results, and the rates are re-checked when the law changes.

Each country also has goods and services that are exempt, and a few places within a country follow different rules. Corsica and the French overseas departments have their own rates. The Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla are outside Spanish VAT altogether and have their own taxes. The calculator uses the national rates and flags these regions with a note when you pick France or Spain.

Standard and reduced rates: what goes where

The standard rate is the default: anything the law does not place elsewhere pays it. Reduced rates are exceptions, and each country writes its own list. The lists overlap in spirit, with food, books, medicines, public transport and hotels showing up again and again, but the details differ, so the same purchase can carry a different rate a few hundred kilometres away.

• Germany has one reduced rate, 7%, for food, books and newspapers, local public transport and hotel stays. Since 1 January 2026, restaurant meals are at 7% too, but drinks served with them stay at 19%.
• France uses 10% for restaurants, passenger transport, hotels and home renovation, 5.5% for most food and for books, and 2.1% for a short list that includes medicines reimbursed by social security.
• Spain applies 4% to bread, milk, eggs, fruit and vegetables, olive oil, books and newspapers and medicines, and 10% to most other food, restaurants and hotels, passenger transport and water.
• Italy applies 4% to basic food, books and newspapers and the purchase of a first home, 10% to restaurants and hotels, meat and many processed foods, and 5% to a narrower list of goods and services.
• Ukraine applies 7% to medicines and medical devices, cultural events, museums, hotel stays and tickets to major sports events, 14% to some farm produce such as wheat, maize and sunflower seeds, and 0% to exports of goods.

When you pick a country, the calculator shows each rate as a button with a one-line description, and the table under the results lists them all with the VAT on your amount. The descriptions are summaries. Whether a particular product falls under a reduced rate is decided by the wording of the law, so check the national tax authority for anything borderline.

Zero rates and exemptions

A zero rate and an exemption look identical on a receipt: no VAT is added, and the total equals the net amount. The difference lies with the seller.

A zero-rated sale is still a taxable sale, only at a rate of 0%. The seller stays in the VAT system and can normally reclaim the VAT it paid to its own suppliers. Exports are the classic case: in Ukraine, exports of goods are taxed at 0%, so goods leave the country without Ukrainian VAT in the price, while the exporter keeps its right to deduct.

An exempt sale is outside the VAT charge. The seller adds no VAT and generally cannot reclaim the VAT on the purchases that went into it. The EU’s small-business exemption works exactly this way: a business using it does not show VAT on its invoices and cannot deduct input VAT. Typical exempt services include education by licensed schools, which the Ukrainian Tax Code lists among its exemptions.

Why you cannot just take 20% off the total

The most common VAT mistake is to remove VAT by taking the rate off the total. It seems logical: the tax is 20%, so the net amount must be 80% of the total. But the 20% was charged on the smaller amount, the price before tax, so inside the total the tax takes a smaller share than the rate.

Take a total of 1,200. Taking 20% off leaves 960 as the "net" price and 240 as the "VAT". Check it: 20% of 960 is 192, not 240. The correct net amount is 1,000, because 1,000 × 1.2 = 1,200, and the VAT is 200. That is a mistake of 40 on every 1,200, or 3.33% of the total, repeated on every invoice.

The higher the rate, the wider the gap between the rate and the VAT share of the total. At 4% the gap is about 0.15 percentage points; at 22% it is almost four. So the same shortcut costs more where the rate is high.

The right way is division: divide the total by 1.2 at 20%, by 1.19 at 19% and by 1.22 at 22%. Extract VAT does exactly this. It is the same logic as any reverse percentage: you find a price before a discount by dividing, and a price before VAT the same way. The guide to the percentage calculator explains reverse percentages in more detail.

Rounding VAT to the cent

Money on an invoice exists only to the cent, and VAT rarely comes out even. A total of 1,000 at 20% contains 166.666… of VAT, which has to be rounded somewhere. The calculator rounds VAT to the cent the ordinary way: less than half a cent is dropped, half a cent or more is rounded up. So for 1,000 it shows VAT of 166.67 and a net amount of 833.33.

Exactly half a cent comes up more often than you might think. A total of 1,234.05 at 20% contains exactly 205.675 of VAT. The calculator rounds it up to 205.68, which leaves a net amount of 1,028.37. Only the VAT is rounded; the other two amounts follow from it by addition or subtraction, so the net amount and the VAT always add up exactly to the total.

Invoices with several lines are a separate question. VAT can be worked out and rounded on each line, or worked out once on the total, and the two can differ by a cent or two. Three items at 4.99 each at 20% carry 1.00 of VAT per line, 3.00 in all. Worked out on the total of 14.97, the VAT is 2.994, which rounds to 2.99. National rules and invoicing software differ on which way to do it.

VAT for small businesses

Not every seller charges VAT. In most VAT systems only registered businesses add it to their prices, and small businesses below a turnover threshold can stay out. The thresholds differ widely, so treat the figures below as examples rather than a rule for your country.

• EU framework. EU countries may exempt small businesses with an annual turnover under 85,000 euros, or under a lower threshold that the country sets. A business using the scheme in other EU countries as well must keep its total EU-wide turnover under 100,000 euros. An exempt small business does not show VAT on its invoices and cannot deduct input VAT, but it may choose normal VAT treatment instead.
• Germany. The small-business rule in section 19 of the VAT Act applies when total turnover was no more than 25,000 euros in the previous calendar year and does not exceed 100,000 euros in the current one.
• Ukraine. Registration as a VAT payer is mandatory once taxable supplies over the last 12 calendar months exceed 1,000,000 hryvnias, net of VAT. Payers of the simplified single tax in groups one to three are excluded from that rule, and any business may register voluntarily.

Staying under a threshold is not always cheaper. A registered business adds VAT to its prices but reclaims the VAT on its costs; an exempt one charges less but swallows the VAT it pays. If your customers are VAT-registered businesses, they can reclaim the VAT you charge, so registration may cost them nothing. If you work as an employee, VAT does not affect your pay directly; the taxes on a Ukrainian salary are covered by the salary calculator.

VAT compared with a sales tax

VAT and a retail sales tax both end up in the price the customer pays, but they are collected differently. VAT is charged at every stage, from the raw materials to the shop, and each business deducts the VAT it paid, so the tax builds up step by step and only the final customer bears it in full. A retail sales tax is charged on the retail sale, at the till, with no chain of charges and deductions behind it.

The United States has no VAT. Its sales taxes are set by states and local governments, and the IRS describes a general sales tax as a tax imposed at one rate on retail sales of a broad range of items. Rates and rules vary by state and by locality, which is why the five built-in countries are all VAT countries. The arithmetic of adding a percentage is the same, though, so you can type a local sales tax rate into Other and use Add VAT to see a price with tax.

VAT, prices and inflation

Shop prices in VAT countries already include VAT, so for a shopper the tax is just part of the price. When a rate changes, prices change with it if sellers pass the tax on in full. A move from 20% to 22% would raise a price with VAT by 1.22 ÷ 1.2, which is 1.67%, not 2%, because the new rate is again applied to the price before tax.

A change like that is a one-off step in the price level, not an ongoing rise. Inflation works year after year and erodes money gradually. The article on inflation and why money loses value explains why, and the inflation impact calculator shows what today’s spending could cost in a few years.

VAT matters when you plan your own spending too. A shop price already includes VAT, but quotes from contractors, business price lists and some rental adverts often give prices without it, and 20% on top can break a budget. In a 50/30/20 budget and in sizing an emergency fund, count costs the way you actually pay them, with VAT.

The percentages in VAT and the interest on savings follow the same logic: a multiplier, a base, a share. The difference is that VAT is applied once, while interest is added again and again. That is the subject of the article on compound interest and the time value of money.

Worked examples

Each example shows what the calculator returns. Examples 1 and 3 use built-in countries, so the amounts are in euros; the numbers work the same way in any currency in Other mode.

Common mistakes and limits

Most VAT mistakes are not about arithmetic but about the base or the rate.

• Taking the rate off the total. 20% of a total is not its VAT. At 20% the VAT is one sixth of the total, 16.67%.
• Adding VAT to a price that already includes it. If a contract price is "including VAT" and you add another 20%, the tax is counted twice. Check whether a price is with or without VAT before you calculate.
• One rate for a whole document. Groceries at 4% and electronics at 21% on one bill need separate calculations, or the VAT comes out wrong.
• Treating a zero rate as an exemption. The price is the same, but the seller’s right to reclaim VAT on costs is not.
• Using last year’s rate. Rates and the lists behind them change with budget laws. Check the date under the results and the national tax authority for anything recent.
• Rounding the net amount instead of the VAT. Round the VAT and derive the other amount from it, and the net amount and VAT will always add up to the total.

The calculator has limits of its own. It works on one amount at a time, not on a whole invoice with many lines. It knows the national rates of five countries as of the date shown, and it does not include regional rates, temporary reductions or exemptions. It does not decide which rate applies to your sale: that depends on the wording of the law, and for anything complicated a tax adviser or the national tax authority is the right place to ask.

For other percentage questions, such as a discount, a markup or a percentage change, use the percentage calculator. To restate an amount for inflation, for example to update a price or a rent, try the indexation calculator.