VAT Calculator

When this calculator helps

Use this calculator whenever you have a net (VAT-exclusive) price and need the VAT-inclusive total to charge or to quote. Across the euro area that is the everyday task behind issuing an invoice, pricing a service, drawing up a quote for a client, or checking a supplier's figures before settling. Enter a net price of €100 at a 21% rate and it shows the €21 of VAT and the €121 gross — the amount the customer actually pays.

The crucial thing it lets you control is the rate. Because the standard rate is not the same across the EU, the calculator takes whatever rate applies in the country of supply, so it works just as well for a German invoice as for a French, Dutch or Hungarian one. It also handles reduced and zero rates if you set them, which is useful for the favoured categories most member states treat differently from the standard rate.

How to read your result

Adding VAT gives you three figures. The net amount is the price before tax — what the seller actually earns and the basis for any margin calculation. The VAT amount is the tax added on top; for a VAT-registered business this is collected on behalf of the national tax authority and paid over on the VAT return, not retained as income. The gross amount is the total the customer pays: net and VAT combined.

An EU VAT invoice should display all three separately — the net, the rate and VAT amount, and the gross — rather than a single lump sum. That separation lets a VAT-registered customer in the same country reclaim the VAT, and it keeps your own records clean for the periodic return.

A worked example

Imagine you are invoicing a client in Germany, where the standard rate is 19%, for a service priced at €800 net. The VAT is €800 × 0.19 = €152, so the gross total on the invoice is €952. Bill the same €800 service to a client in France, where the standard rate is 20%, and the VAT becomes €160 for a gross of €960. In Hungary, at 27%, it would be €216 of VAT and a €1,016 total — the same net price, three different totals, simply because the rate follows the country.

Common mistakes to avoid

In the euro area the easiest way to go wrong is with the rate, because there is no single EU-wide figure to fall back on.

• Applying one country's standard rate to a supply taxed in another — Germany's 19%, France's 20% and Hungary's 27% are all standard rates, so the correct one depends on where the supply is taxed.
• Confusing adding VAT with removing it: taking 21% off a €121 gross does not return €100 net (it gives €95.59). To strip VAT out, divide the gross by 1 plus the rate.
• Treating a reduced-rate or zero-rated item as standard-rated — food, books and medicines often attract a lower national rate, and zero-rated is not the same as exempt.
• Overlooking the reverse-charge and One Stop Shop rules on cross-border sales, where the headline rate this calculator shows may not be what actually goes on the invoice.

EU VAT rates vary by member state

Unlike the single UK rate, VAT in the EU is set nationally, so the standard rate depends entirely on the country of supply. Rates currently span roughly 17% at the low end (Luxembourg) to 27% at the high end (Hungary), with most member states sitting between 20% and 25% — Germany at 19%, France and Austria at 20%, the Netherlands and Spain at 21%, and so on. The EU VAT Directive only fixes a floor of 15% for the standard rate; everything above that is a national decision, and each country also operates its own reduced and zero rates for favoured categories.

The practical upshot is that the rate you enter must match the place where the supply is taxed, not where you happen to be sitting. For domestic sales that is straightforward; for cross-border trade, special rules — the reverse charge for B2B and the One Stop Shop for B2C distance selling — can change which rate, if any, belongs on the invoice. This calculator computes the headline figure once you know the rate; your accountant or national tax authority is the place to confirm which rate that should be.