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VAT calculator
Add VAT to a price, or take it out of one that already includes it, at the UK rates. Add more lines for an invoice with several items or rates.
The amounts
VAT
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Total including VAT
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Enter an amount.
Working
Coming soon: the pricing and margin workbook, to price everything you sell with VAT
Line by line
| Line | Rate | Before VAT | VAT | Including VAT |
|---|
UK VAT rates from GOV.UK, checked 27 October 2026: 20% standard, 5% reduced, 0% zero. VAT rounded to the nearest penny as HMRC’s VAT manual describes. Nothing you type is stored or sent anywhere.
How it works
- Adding VAT: VAT = amount × rate, and the total = amount + VAT. At 20%, the total is the amount × 1.2
- Taking VAT out: VAT = amount × rate ÷ (100% + rate). At 20%, that is one sixth; at 5%, one twenty-first
- Before VAT = amount including VAT − VAT
- Each line = amount × quantity, to the nearest penny
Each line’s VAT is worked out to the nearest penny, with half a penny rounded up (away from zero for a credit, so it mirrors the invoice), and the totals add up the lines, so before VAT plus VAT is always the total including VAT. An invoice with items at different rates shows a total for each rate.
A minus amount counts as a credit or a discount, and reduces the totals; a quantity can’t be below zero. Amounts and quantities can have up to four decimal places, for unit prices in fractions of a penny. A blank quantity counts as 1, and a line with no amount is left out. A line can be up to £100 billion, and a quantity up to a billion. No VAT is for sales that are exempt or outside the scope of VAT; zero-rated sales are 0%.
Questions
How do I add VAT to a price?
Multiply it by 1.2 for the 20% standard rate, or by 1.05 for the 5% reduced rate. £250 before VAT is £300 with VAT at 20%, of which £50 is VAT.
How do I work out the VAT in a price that already includes it?
At 20%, the VAT is one sixth of the price, so divide by 6. At 5%, it is one twenty-first, so divide by 21. £120 including VAT at 20% is £20 of VAT and £100 before VAT. Taking 20% off £120 gives £96, which is wrong: the 20% was added to £100, not to £120.
Which VAT rate applies to what I sell?
Most goods and services are at the 20% standard rate. Some, such as home energy and children’s car seats, are at the 5% reduced rate, and some, such as most food and children’s clothes, are zero-rated. GOV.UK lists the rates for different goods and services. This calculator does the arithmetic on the rate you choose; it can’t tell you which rate applies.
What is the difference between zero-rated and exempt?
Neither has VAT added to the price, so both work out the same here. The difference is elsewhere: zero-rated sales count towards your taxable turnover for VAT registration, and exempt sales don’t, and a business can normally reclaim the VAT on its own costs for zero-rated sales but not for exempt ones. GOV.UK’s VAT guide (Notice 700) explains both.
How does the calculator round?
Each line is worked out to the nearest penny. Its VAT is then worked out to the nearest penny, with half a penny rounded up, which is a rule HMRC’s VAT manual gives for VAT. A credit is rounded the same way in reverse (away from zero), so it mirrors the invoice. The totals add up the lines, so before VAT plus VAT always equals the total including VAT. HMRC also allows the VAT on an invoice to be worked out other ways, such as rounding the total VAT down to a whole penny, so your accounts software may differ from this by a few pence, more on an invoice with many lines.
Do I have to charge VAT?
Only if you are VAT registered. You must register if your taxable turnover for the last 12 months went over £90,000, or you expect your taxable turnover in the next 30 days alone to go over £90,000 (GOV.UK, checked 27 October 2026). A business based outside the UK that supplies goods or services here usually has to register whatever its turnover. If you are not registered, you don’t add VAT to your prices; if you register late, GOV.UK says you must pay VAT on the sales you made from the date you should have registered.
Is anything I enter stored or sent anywhere?
No. The calculator runs in your browser. Nothing you type is stored or sent anywhere, and the page sets no cookies.
Bespoke & Consultancy
Quotes and invoices that add up themselves
If your team types VAT sums into quotes, invoices or spreadsheets by hand, we can build software that does it for you, to a fixed price agreed before work starts.
More free tools for businesses: all of them in one place. Coming soon: the pricing and margin workbook.
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