Discount & sales tax calculator
Sale price and savings after a discount and tax.
How to use the discount & tax calculator
- Enter the original price — the sticker or listed price before any reduction.
- Enter the discount as a percentage: type
30for "30% off". Leave it at 0 if you only want to add tax to a quoted price. - Optionally add your local sales tax percentage — it's applied to the already-discounted amount, the way US receipts work. In VAT countries the shelf price usually includes tax, so leave this at 0.
- Read the three results: You save (the discount in money), After discount (the reduced price before tax), and Final price (what you'd pay at the register).
- Everything recalculates as you type, so flipping between two deals takes seconds.
Common uses
- Check a sale price before the register does: a $49.99 shirt at 30% off with 7% sales tax saves $15.00 and rings up at $37.44.
- Compare offers stated differently: $60 at 25% off is $45.00, while $55 at 15% off is $46.75 — the deeper discount on the pricier item wins here.
- Add sales tax to a tax-free quote — discount 0, tax at your local rate — to get the out-the-door price of an online listing or estimate.
- Work out the real cost of a promo code, tax included, before committing at checkout.
- Price your own sale: list an item at 20% off and see instantly what buyers pay and what you give up.
Tips & limitations
- Stacked discounts don't add: 20% off plus an extra 10% is 28% off, not 30%, because the second cut applies to the already-reduced price. Run the calculator twice (feed "After discount" back in as the price) or enter the combined 28.
- "You save" counts only the discount on the sticker price — tax is money paid on top either way, so it isn't part of the savings figure.
- Dollar-off deals ("$10 off") aren't percentages — subtract those yourself first, or convert to a percentage with the percentage calculator.
- Prices display with a $ symbol, but the arithmetic is currency-agnostic — enter euros or pounds and read the results in that currency.
- The discount field accepts any number, so a typo over 100 produces a negative price — the tool won't stop you. Sanity-check big-ticket math.
How it's built & why it's safe
Two lines of percentage math run live in your browser: savings = price × discount / 100, then the final price multiplies the discounted amount by 1 + tax / 100 — so tax is charged on what you actually pay, not the original sticker. Results are formatted as currency with toLocaleString. There's no server, no account and no storage: prices you type are never saved or sent anywhere, and reloading resets the example numbers. The whole tool is a short script you can read with View Source.
Related tools: Percentage Calculator · Bill Splitter & Tip Calculator · Buy & Trade Calculator
Frequently asked questions
Is tax applied before or after the discount?
After — tax is charged on the discounted price, matching how US retail receipts work. Mathematically the final price comes out identical either way when both are percentages; it only differs if a store taxes the full pre-coupon price, which some do for manufacturer coupons.
How do I calculate stacked discounts, like 20% off plus an extra 10%?
Sequential discounts multiply rather than add: 20% then 10% leaves you paying 80% x 90% = 72% of the original, i.e. 28% off. Either run the tool twice, feeding the after-discount price back in, or enter 28 directly.
Can I use it for currencies other than dollars?
Yes. The results show a $ symbol, but percentages don't care about currency — type a price in euros, pounds or yen and read the outputs in that same currency. Only the displayed symbol is off.
What about "$10 off" instead of a percentage?
Fixed-amount discounts need one extra step: subtract the amount yourself, or convert it to a percentage first ($10 off $49.99 is about 20%). To then add tax here, set the discount to 0 and enter the reduced price.
Why doesn't "You save" include the tax I avoid?
The savings figure is the discount on the sticker price only. A discount does also shrink the tax you pay, but ads and receipts quote savings as the pre-tax reduction, so the tool matches that convention.
Is my shopping math private?
Completely — the calculation runs in your browser with no server involved, nothing stored and nothing transmitted, whether you're checking a $5 coupon or negotiating a car price.