How to calculate GST on an invoice?
The procedure is simple; it’s just a matter of putting it into practice. To address any doubts you might
have, we will show you an example of how to calculate GST. You can apply it to any business
in the following way:
Let’s suppose that there are three companies involved in a production process. The first company is called
HAY and it produces hay for cattle. The second company is LIVESTOCK and they have a dairy farm. The last one
is DAIRY, which produces and sells milk to the end consumer.
When HAY sells hay to LIVESTOCK, they will charge the corresponding selling price. They should also add an
extra GST percentage to this amount that will also be charged to the client. For example, if
the selling price is $160.50 and the tax percentage is 15%, they
would charge a total of $184.58.
How to calculate the GST amount?
The selling price can change depending on the final cost of your goods or services. However, the tax
percentage is subject to the amount required by the Tax Agency. Considering this, how was the amount of
$184.58 calculated in the previous example?
To answer this, you need to use the corresponding formula. First, you divide 15%,
which is the GST percentage, by 100. This will give you a result of
0.15. In other words:
GST% = 15% / 100
= 0.15
Then, you multiply the selling price, also known as the taxable amount, by the percentage. According to the
example, this is $160.50 (which is the taxable amount) times 0.15
(the result of the above formula). This equals $24.07 (GST amount).
The equation looks like this:
GST amount: taxable amount x GST% = $160.50 x 0.15 = $24.07
Total amount with GST = $160.50 + $24.07 = $184.58 . This is the total price of the hay including GST.
How to calculate the total price with GST included?
There is a simple, efficient and quick way to do this that will help you calculate the total amount or cost
including GST using a well-known formula. It consists of adding a one to the tax percentage
that we saw earlier: 1 + 0.15 = 1.15
Then, you multiply this number by the taxable amount, or selling price, which according to the
example is $160.50. After multiplying these, you will notice that it gives you a result
with GST already included (total amount), which is $184.58. The formula
looks like this:
Total amount with GST = $160.50 x 1.15 = $184.58
How to calculate a price without GST?
If you want to know how much a product or service costs without tax, you can calculate this as well. There
is a way to calculate the taxable amount by removing GST. We will continue using the same
example to illustrate how to do this.
You have to divide the total amount that will be charged to the end consumer by the Value-Added Tax
percentage. If the total cost of the hay is $184.58 and the tax rate is
15%, the formula is like this:
Taxable amount = Total amount / GST (15%) = $184.58 / 1.15 = $160.50
To verify that this is the correct result, you can use the following operation:
GST (15%) = $160.50 x 0.15 = $24.07
Total amount with GST = $24.07 + $160.50 = $184.58
How to calculate the taxable amount with just GST
On the other hand, if you only have the total cost of the tax, you need to use a different formula to figure
out the taxable amount. You simply have to divide the amount of tax by 0.15, which is the
tax rate to be charged.
In other words, if the amount of GST for the hay is $24.07 – according
to the applied tax – you have to divide that by 0.15, which gives you the taxable amount.
You can see this in the following formula:
Taxable amount = GST amount / GST (15%) = $24.07 / 0.15 = $160.50
This means that the selling price of hay without GST is $160.50. You can
verify that this result is accurate by using the following formula:
Total amount with GST = $160.50 + $24.07 = $184.58
