EU VAT Calculator

The calculator has three modes — Markup, Margin and VAT — and opens on the VAT tab with the rate set to 21% and amounts in euros. The 21% is a starting value, not an EU-wide rate: it is the standard rate in Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium, but Germany charges 19% and Sweden 25%. The first step is always the same — replace the default with the rate of the country whose VAT applies to your transaction. The field accepts any rate.

VAT mode runs in two directions. Adding VAT takes a net amount and returns the VAT and the gross: gross = net × (1 + rate). At 21%, a €200.00 net price carries €42.00 of VAT and sells at €242.00 gross. Removing VAT takes a gross amount and returns the net and the VAT element inside it: net = gross ÷ (1 + rate), so €242.00 gross at 21% comes back to exactly €200.00 net — the two directions are inverses of each other.

Markup mode prices from cost: a €100.00 cost at 30% markup sells for €130.00, because markup measures the profit against cost. Margin mode prices from the selling price: price = cost ÷ (1 − margin), so the same €100.00 cost at a 30% margin sells for €142.86, because margin measures the same profit against the price. The two percentages are not interchangeable — the €130.00 price carries a 30% markup but only a 23.08% margin.

Article 97 of the VAT Directive (2006/112/EC) sets a floor, not a rate: every member state's standard VAT rate must be at least 15%, and the Directive sets no maximum. Each of the 27 member states chooses its own standard rate at or above that minimum, so 'the EU VAT rate' does not exist — the applicable rate depends on which country's VAT applies to the transaction. Across ten of the largest EU economies the standard rate takes six different values, from 19% to 25%:

Rates also move. Finland raised its standard rate to 25.5% in September 2024, Slovakia to 23% in January 2025, Estonia to 24% in July 2025 and Romania to 21% in August 2025 — four standard-rate changes in under a year. That is why the table carries its as-of date, and why the calculator takes the rate as an input instead of hard-coding a country list: a rate change never breaks the arithmetic, only the label. Confirm the current rate on the European Commission's rates table or with the national tax authority before invoicing. The United Kingdom is absent from the table deliberately — it left the EU VAT area, and its 20% rate belongs to the UK VAT calculator.

Removing VAT answers a precise question: given a gross, VAT-inclusive price, what was the net, and how much VAT is inside? The formula divides: net = gross ÷ (1 + rate), and the VAT element is gross minus net. The common mistake is subtracting the percentage instead — treating the net as gross × (1 − rate). At 19% that turns €100.00 gross into €81.00, but the true net is €100.00 ÷ 1.19 = €84.03. The subtraction fails because the 19% was charged on the net: the VAT inside €100.00 gross is 19% of €84.03, which is €15.97, not 19% of €100.00.

The rate in the division matters as much as the division itself, because the same gross contains different nets at different rates. One €100.00 gross amount, three member-state rates:

Removing 19% and removing 23% from the same €100.00 differ by €2.73 of net — €84.03 against €81.30 — and the gap compounds line by line across a ledger. The arithmetic cannot detect a wrong rate: the calculator divides by whatever you enter, so the rate has to be the one actually inside the price — the rate of the country whose VAT applies, not the rate most familiar to you.

Reduced rates explain why the same product carries different VAT in different member states. Since Council Directive (EU) 2022/542 of 5 April 2022, each member state may apply up to two reduced rates of no less than 5% to goods and services drawn from up to 24 points of Annex III of the VAT Directive — the list of eligible categories. On top of that it may apply one super-reduced rate below 5%, and one exemption with right of deduction — a zero rate — restricted to at most 7 Annex III points covering basic needs such as foodstuffs and medicines.

Every choice on that menu is national: which Annex III categories to relieve, at which percentages, and whether to use the super-reduced and zero options at all. Cross a border and both the classification and the percentage can change, lawfully, under the same directive. A product standard-rated in one member state can sit in a reduced band next door.

For the calculator the practical consequence is that the standard rate is not always the right entry. If the goods or services fall in a reduced category in the relevant country, enter that country's reduced rate — the arithmetic is identical at any percentage. The calculator does not classify goods; the national tax authority's published rate lists decide which category applies.

Cross-border B2C sales bring one more rate decision, governed by one threshold. An EU-wide €10,000 annual turnover threshold applies to a seller's combined cross-border B2C telecommunications, broadcasting and electronic services and intra-EU distance sales of goods — one combined figure across all member states, not an allowance per country. Below it, those sales may remain subject to VAT in the seller's own member state; once it is exceeded, VAT is due in the customer's member state, at that country's rate. The One Stop Shop keeps that manageable: a business registers in a single member state of identification and declares and pays, through one return, the VAT due in other member states, instead of registering in every country of consumption.

B2B works differently. On intra-EU B2B supplies where the business customer holds a valid EU VAT number, the seller does not charge VAT; the customer accounts for the VAT in its own country under the reverse-charge procedure, at the rate applicable there. For those invoices the honest calculator entry is no VAT at all, not a guessed rate.

Small sellers may be outside VAT entirely. Since 1 January 2025 the EU SME scheme lets an eligible small enterprise sell without charging VAT: domestically while annual turnover stays within its member state's national threshold — a nationally set figure that may not exceed €85,000, which makes €85,000 a cap, not an EU registration threshold — and cross-border in member states where it is not established, provided Union annual turnover across all 27 member states stays within €100,000 in both the current and previous calendar year and within each such state's national threshold, registering once at home under an 'EX' number. An exempt seller charges no VAT, cannot deduct input VAT and cannot show VAT on invoices, so this page's VAT figures do not describe its own sales. The scheme is optional.

The calculator has limits of its own. It applies one rate to one amount at a time, so an invoice mixing standard-rated and reduced-rated lines needs each line computed at its own rate. It does not know your country's rate — the 21% default is a value to replace, not a recommendation. And it computes amounts, not invoices: what a compliant VAT invoice must show is set by the country whose VAT applies, so verify invoicing rules with your national tax authority. The page is informational, not tax advice.