Work out total from VAT

[spudgun]

This is a simple maths question I am sure but my feeble brain can't get it to work.

I need to work out the total cost of an item from just the known vat. For example I know that the VAT is £10.21 but I don't know what the total cost is.

The reason? I have an internet business that sells products which are a mixture of zero and standard rate, but I need to put the invoice figures into Quickbooks so that I can complete the VAT return easily.

[ivorproblem]

vat is 17.5 %. So to work out the cost of the item that arrived at £10.21 divide £10.21 by 17.5 and then multiply by 100. This then gives you the original net cost of the item before vat is charged. Give it a go - what is your answer !

[maths]

Total cost =[ £10.21/0.175 ] + £10.21 = £68.55

ie [VAT/0.175] + VAT = Total Cost

[King_Maker]

I just multiply the amount of VAT by 47/7 to obtain the VAT inclusive amount.

So, £10.21 x 47/7 = £68.55

[Generix]

The magic numbers when playing with VAT (UK Standard rate) are 7, 40 and 47...

Gross = 47
Vat = 7
Net = 40

That's all you ever need to know! To find gross from VAT you divide by 7 then multiply by 47. Or instead to work back to net from VAT, you divide by 7 and multiply by 40.

These can be reversed to find VAT from gross (i.e. /47 then x7) or net from gross (/47 *40)

General rule is divide by what you have times by what you want.

On reading that back I seem to have complicated things, but have written it now so will post it....look above for better advice!

[spudgun]

Thanks for all your replies - my maths wasn't as bad as I thought it was. It all seems to boil down to rounding errors in our shopping cart. I have been trying to build an export file and it just seems to produce the odd penny error each time.

[piazope]

I keep an icon for this www site on my pc desktop.

http://www.digita.com/taxcentral/home/vat/vatcalculator/default.asp