Question

An item costs $4 before tax
and $4.32 after sales tax.
What is the sales tax rate?

Answer 1

To find the sales tax rate, we can use the formula for calculating sales tax, which is:

\[
\text{Sales Tax} = \text{Price before tax} \times \text{Sales Tax Rate}
\]

In this case, the price before tax is $4 and the price after tax is $4.32. We first need to calculate the total sales tax that applies to the item:

\[
\text{Sales Tax} = \text{Price after tax} - \text{Price before tax} = 4.32 - 4 = 0.32
\]

Now, we can set up the equation for the sales tax:

\[
0.32 = 4 \times \text{Sales Tax Rate}
\]

To find the sales tax rate, we divide both sides by $4:

\[
\text{Sales Tax Rate} = \frac{0.32}{4} = 0.08
\]

To express this as a percentage, we multiply by 100:

\[
\text{Sales Tax Rate} = 0.08 \times 100 = 8\%
\]

Thus, the sales tax rate is **8%**.