VAT Calculator, Add or Remove VAT
Add VAT to a net price or extract it from a gross amount. EU rate presets (23, 21, 20, 19), custom rates, and a clear net / VAT / gross breakdown.
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A VAT calculator answers the two questions every freelancer, shop owner, and accountant faces daily: what does a net price become once VAT is added, and how much VAT is hidden inside a gross, tax-inclusive amount? Value Added Tax is a consumption tax charged as a percentage of the net price, so adding it is straightforward: gross = net × (1 + rate ÷ 100). With Portugal's standard 23% rate, a net price of €100 becomes €100 × 1.23 = €123, of which €23 is VAT. This tool performs both directions instantly, shows the full net / VAT / gross breakdown rounded to two decimal places, and lets you copy the result for invoices, quotes, or expense reports.
Frequently asked questions
How do I add VAT to a net price?
How do I remove VAT from a gross (tax-inclusive) price?
Why is removing 23% VAT not the same as subtracting 23%?
What are the standard VAT rates in the EU?
Can I use this calculator for reduced VAT rates?
Does this work for GST and sales tax outside Europe?
How is the VAT amount rounded?
Is my financial data sent anywhere?
What is the difference between net, VAT amount, and gross?
How do I calculate the VAT contained in a receipt total?
About VAT Calculator, Add or Remove VAT
The reverse calculation is where most mistakes happen, and it is the single most common VAT error in business. To remove 23% VAT from a gross amount you must divide by 1.23, not subtract 23%. The reason is that the 23% was charged on the net amount, which is smaller than the gross. Take a gross price of €123: dividing by 1.23 correctly returns the €100 net. Subtracting 23% instead (€123 × 0.77 = €94.71) understates the net by more than €5, because you are taking 23% of the larger, tax-inclusive figure. The general formula is net = gross ÷ (1 + rate ÷ 100), and the VAT amount is simply gross minus net. On a €1,230 invoice that mistake would misstate the recoverable VAT by €65.07, enough to cause real accounting discrepancies.
VAT rates vary widely across Europe, so this calculator includes one-click presets for the most common standard rates: 23% (Portugal, Poland, Ireland), 21% (Spain, Belgium, Netherlands), 20% (France, United Kingdom, Austria), and 19% (Germany, Romania). A custom field accepts any other rate, including reduced rates such as Portugal's 6% and 13%, Germany's 7%, France's 5.5% and 10%, or Spain's 4% and 10%, which apply to categories like food, books, medicine, and hospitality. Because the rate field is free, the tool also works for GST in Australia (10%), New Zealand (15%), Singapore (9%), and Canada, and for any sales-tax-style percentage worldwide.
Everything runs locally in your browser: the amounts you type are never sent to a server, so it is safe to use with confidential pricing. Results update live as you type, and the breakdown always shows all three figures (net, VAT amount, and gross) so you can paste whichever line your document needs. Worked example in the remove direction: a German receipt shows €59.50 including 19% VAT. Net = 59.50 ÷ 1.19 = €50.00, VAT = €9.50. Worked example in the add direction: a French quote of €480 net at 20% gives VAT of €96 and a gross total of €576. Note that this tool is for quick calculations and estimates; for filing returns, always follow the rounding rules of your national tax authority.
From a French Experiment to the World's Favourite Tax
Value Added Tax is a surprisingly recent invention. Although a German industrialist, Wilhelm von Siemens, sketched the idea of a staged consumption tax in the 1920s, the first real implementation came from the French tax official Maurice Lauré, who introduced the "taxe sur la valeur ajoutée" in 1954, initially applying it to large businesses. Lauré's insight was elegant: by taxing only the value added at each stage of production, and letting every business deduct the tax it had already paid on its inputs, the system avoided the cascading "tax on tax" effect of older turnover taxes while making evasion harder, since every buyer in the chain has an incentive to demand a proper invoice from the seller.
The idea spread with remarkable speed. The European Economic Community made VAT mandatory for member states in 1967, and the tax then travelled far beyond Europe: today more than 170 countries operate a VAT or its close cousin, the Goods and Services Tax (GST). The most notable holdout is the United States, which relies on state and local retail sales taxes instead, a system where tax is collected only once, at the final sale. Rates around the world vary enormously, from 5% in the United Arab Emirates to 27% in Hungary, the highest standard rate in the world, and VAT now raises roughly a fifth of all tax revenue collected globally.
VAT also produces some of the strangest debates in tax law, because the line between reduced-rate essentials and standard-rate luxuries must be drawn somewhere. The United Kingdom famously litigated whether a Jaffa Cake is a cake (zero-rated) or a chocolate-covered biscuit (standard-rated); the court ruled it a cake, partly because it goes hard when stale, as cakes do, rather than soft, as biscuits do. Ireland once had to decide whether Subway's bread contained too much sugar to legally count as bread (it did). And in several countries, children's car seats, sunscreen, and even gingerbread men are taxed differently depending on tiny details, in the gingerbread case, historically, on how much chocolate decoration the figure wears.